The Shrine Fox's Saviour
by Aikawarazu
Summary: Sasuke was wary when he came upon the shrine deep in the heart of a nearly untouched forest, but the fox god there looked upon him favourably and made him want to stay - until he discovered the dark secret of the villagers who came to pray there. SasuNaru
1. Chapter 1

**The following is my first submission of fanfiction in nearly any form. The main characters are Sasuke and Naruto - yes, like _that_ - and the setting is in Japan near the dawn of the Edo period. It is meant to be based on the story called 'Schippeitaro' which is in itself a Japanese fairytale first introduced to the English speaking world in Andrew Lang's Violet Fairy Book. This is the first chapter - if you like it, please let me know and I will continue. Thanks for your patronage!**

A curious sensation began with him, starting with the suddenly heightened beating of his heart and tingling throughout his entire being down to the ends of his fingers. It happened just as he had broken through the mist that had heretofore been enshrouding the forest, the very forest he had journeyed deep within all alone. Having entered earlier that day, the surreal white light within it had been striking, pouring down from the canopy above and reflecting in beautiful, ethereal ways from off the milky fog. Well-worn sandals stamped a path over the dewy grass and over the damp, soft dirt in a direction unknown to their owner; and here they had taken him to a place that felt indescribably like destiny.

From in the distance as he had approached the colossal expanse of trees it had looked like adventure - a vast hillside of brightest spring greens and emeralds, a hearty land of evergreens and tall, young saplings interspersed with long cool stalks of bamboo. It was wilderness and freedom, the kind that made him want to throw off his kimono and hakama and run madly through it with his arms wide out. As a man of solitude and wanderlust he had not hesitated before venturing forth into its depths and had spent several hours traversing it, only having now broken free of early morning and thus had found himself in a clearing beneath the mid-day sun.

Legs well-seasoned with travel ached as he stopped, wiping the sweat from his brow with a cloth that his mother had given him as a child; the skin between his toes ached from the fraying strap between them and his throat had grown dry and cracked. For a moment he squatted in the long grass, feeling as though he was the only human being on earth; he laughed at this thought and drank water fitfully from a gourd he kept on his hip. It was difficult to say when last he'd felt as rich and full as he did at that moment, blinking his black-brown almond eyes up at the sunlight filtered through the leaves. At times such as those, he felt as though he could remember the family he had once had watching over him.

Being looked after from those beyond this world did nothing for his stomach though, he quickly remembered as his stomach roared painfully. A slender hand went to his chest as if to stop the pangs of hunger, noting with regret that his ribs seemed more pronounced lately. Climbing back to his feet, he took a few steps forward with the idea that he might find some mountain vegetables to make into a soup or to eat alongside the meager rice balls he had left over from the last place he'd stopped in at. He'd been lucky then, in the valley at the base of the lush green mountain: they'd had fairly good crops that year and been generous to donate as much as they had to a traveler such as himself. There were many places which did not have enough to feed themselves, let alone anything to spare; places like that were dangerous, often chasing outsiders away by violent force lest they be stolen from. At worst, he'd heard that well-meaning sojourners could become nameless graves, the types from which horrifying ghost stories arose.

Indeed, the necessity of caution was never far from his mind - especially when he came across a path as he did then: the crude line of dirt was barely visiblethe long grass around it but was well-packed nonetheless. It extended through the line of the woods in two directions, running east-west before Sasuke. Unkempt locks of soot-black hair fluttered about his thin face, long and divided at the front in two as he examined the situation and considered whether or not to take the path at all. With the breeze that tickled his face, though, returned that sensation of what he could honestly only describe as destiny. It was as though the gods had chosen him just then and were welcoming him into their plan as well as their arms. His eyes turned back to the trees, wondering at the spirits within them briefly before he registered _something_ looking back at him. Unlike any other Japanese he'd seen before, dark blue such as one might see on a night-blooming flower rimmed the pupils of a pair of very curious eyes, ones that widened in pleasure upon seeing him and then promptly disappeared.

Startled was one way of describing how he felt; another might be terrified. There was no way that eyes that colour could belong to a human being, and there in a woods that seemed to have an energy of their own it could be any manner of creature that had taken up residence there from something as harmless as a wood-spirit to a veritable ogre. Not an animal though, he thought, there was clearly intelligent emotion displayed in those eyes. Sasuke tried to recall if there had been a face to match the vivid blue which had so deeply impressed him and found that the only notion he could come up with was 'whiskers' - whatever that even meant. He took a step forward onto the path itself and looked off in both directions. To the right, the path wound through the trees and disappeared after several horse-lengths; to the left, he thought he could make out something much closer in the form of slats of wood - part of a wall - a house perhaps?

Part of him, a cynical him, felt that the house might be abandoned as he set off cautiously towards it. It was also suggested from within that perhaps that unnameable creature resided there, and that same internal voice inquired as to what he intended to do if it was indeed some man-eating beast from the world beyond. His hand gripped his katana at the hilt, popping it out slightly with a push of his thumb against its scabbard just in case; if it was indeed a house and had inhabitants, he could not afford to pass by the chance to share in a meal with them and perhaps a good night's rest.

Step by step, the view of the wall that Sasuke had seen along the way grew and took form to reveal something entirely unexpected; it was not a house at all but in fact a small but well-kept shrine to the fox god Inari. Its condition despite its tiny, one room size suggested that it was indeed precious to some nearby people, ones who likely depended on the god for harvest. A fresh bowl of rice set before the sly face of a fox statue suggested that the shrine's inhabitants were listening, too - a good sign for a man in need such as himself. With his katana sheathed again, he took a deep breath and passed below the torii gate, climbed the few steps to the money box and reached into his pouch, only to discover that there was but a single mon left within it. Digging the copper coin out, he tossed it into the box, grabbed a thick rope which had been attached to a single bell and shook it until it clanged, hoping to get the attention of the shrine's deities. He clapped twice and began to pray, little knowing that he had already caught their attention before he'd even set foot in the shrine.

Not knowing what to request, Sasuke had prayed simply for protection and clarity of thought; in the last few months ideas of revenge had dulled his heart, with passion driven out by long and weary nights with nothing to do but be alone with his tumultuous emotions. Perhaps the shrine gods would be able to tell him something of value, to give him new direction in the world. The thick fringe of dark lashes which surrounded his eyes opened to register some being in their periphery; something was eating the bowl of rice that the villagers had left out. Whatever it was had a very full head of bright, golden hair as pale as a yellow shell. It looked very soft and thick, a warm colour that somehow reminded him of an animal. His fingers reached out as if to stroke the head, imagining its plush texture against his dusty, calloused hands but pulled back quickly as he took in the rest of the strange vision.

With its back to him and its head bent over the rice bowl, Sasuke could see that it was more or less the shape of a man - perhaps a youth, dressed in a clean and crisp kimono in muted steel blue with white flecks; the bottom half was covered by a neatly-tied ash-grey hakama. His skin nearly glowed with life, a warm and uniformly tan colour all over, even down to the very fingers that were greedily scooping rice up in a most unorthodox manner. The traveler was at a loss for words; he'd never seen anyone but the poorest of the poor take food that was meant to be an offering before and even they knew they were taking their chances. He remained where he was, frozen as he tried to determine whether or not to say anything. The young man, if indeed he was a man, continued to eat the rice as though he hadn't a care in the world.

Sasuke continued to ponder - hadn't the strange looking person seen him there praying? Wasn't he afraid of being caught? Was the hair colour the result of some sort of strange defect at birth?

"Why would I be afraid of being caught?" came a low, smooth voice that was distinctly human. Sasuke guessed that the youth might be about seventeen.

"Excuse me?" Sasuke began, rather offended at once for being addressed so abruptly as though he were the actual intruder. Who was a thief to address him in such a manner?

"I said why would I be afraid of being caught? It's my food." The brightly coloured head did not even swivel in the slightest to regard Sasuke, who was a man of peace in solitude but one of searing pride when he came in contact with other people. He supposed he just wasn't good at human relations.

"Oh, I've heard of your type - the ones who leave offerings at shrines and then later return and take the food as though you couldn't spare it! Have you no respect?" His narrow black eyes narrowed even further to glare at the intruder - after all, even if he was a visitor at least he knew how to show proper reverence for greater beings! No one at his family's shrine had...wait - had that thing read his mind?

"I suppose maybe I don't," came that same deep voice still tinged with boyishness. Narrow, muscled shoulders shrugged beneath the blue cloth. Sasuke, having realised that whatever it was could read his mind, was fighting to keep his hands steady. He wasn't sure what he would do if this fellow turned around to reveal that he had no face or he had a face like a tengu or something. There was no menace in those words, however; it was as though the boy was merely mulling over some possibility that he had not considered previously. Tanned fingers disappeared up towards a hidden mouth and came back down glistening, now free of stray grains of sticky rice. Sasuke's heart thumped within his chest - he wasn't used to such wanton displays, even when he couldn't see exactly what had just happened. He leaned forward as though to inspect them more closely, a feeling of curiosity rising up within him.

A single white smudge rested upon the boy's knuckle. Just as Sasuke decided to point this out to him, the face he had been wondering about for the past few minutes spun about to face him, grinning widely and slyly over that same blue-clad shoulder as before. The traveler's eyes nearly bugged out of his head as he took in the sight before him - in the sunlight, those very same blue eyes appeared bright like the afternoon sky in summer; three strange whisker-like marks adorned each cheek; flaxen eyebrows arched mischievously over wide, sharply-edged eyes. Down the young man's face (for indeed he appeared to be about seventeen) sat a short, smoothly curved nose with a pert, almost cute tip and puffy, fluted lips that were spread wide with laughter. Sasuke observed the same thick, fur-like golden hair and realized immediately what it reminded him of - fox hair.

Had he been a man of greater words, he might have exclaimed something as the notion of it all hit home; as it was he remained silent, trying to collect whatever he could of his dignity. He had intruded upon the shrine of a fox god inhabited by a proper fox spirit and then insulted the creature on its own territory. Foxes were wily, known for playing tricks on normal humans and using strange magic on them. Also, Sasuke added mentally, for falling in love with them and marrying them - after all, the greatest _onmyouji _of all time had been born of a human and a fox - everyone knew that. A laughing fox now could mean doom for him and then he would never even have the chance to ponder whether or not he was still in the process of working out his revenge.

"Why do you want revenge?" asked the fox boy, still smiling openly as he got to his feet and licked the last evidence of his meal off of his knuckle. Sasuke noted that the tongue which shot out was very, very pink and wet. Fascinating.

No, wait - revenge? It was happening again. In spite of himself Sasuke felt his infamous temper rising up within him, encouraging him to say the words he was desperately biting back. It was definitely not appropriate to mouth off at the spirit, no matter how friendly it seemed (and it was very friendly looking!). "I have to kill those responsible for the death of my family," he spat out evenly, nearly choking on the words as they passed his lips. He never wanted to mention it to other people - all it did was remind him of how much hate was left inside him. Just a few minutes earlier he'd been standing in the clearing by himself, feeling as though he might actually be able to let the angry knots within him loosen somewhat, and now he'd regressed completely.

"If that's what you really wanted, then why didn't you pray for that? I can grant things like that, you know." Long, slim arms stretched out behind his fuzzy blond head as the spirit laid back along the platform where people came to pray to him. "I might, in fact, if you can guess my name."

Sasuke was in a daze, wondering to himself why he hadn't prayed for such a thing, either. He should have asked for strength to defeat his enemies! - But he was no Takeda Shingen, he was merely the last of a once illustrious line that had somehow found himself a hermit. His heart panged slightly at the thought of his mother and father, at the idea that they might be disappointed in him for having strayed so far from the traditional customs of their family. He was brave and dutiful, but somehow in his travels he'd become his own man. His heart ached too for the memory of his brother, an even deeper pang knowing that he had had a hand in the death of his only remaining relative. His solitude had come at a price. "I don't want to guess your name. I don't deserve things like that. Any revenge I take now should come from my own dirty hands." Had he been the type to pity himself, he would have been ashamed at the knowledge that he had even rung the shrine's bell with his murdering hands, self-flagellating with unkind thoughts and relishing the pain that he knew still resided deep within his heart. As it stood, he was the type to ignore such things - to grit his teeth against the pain and carry on. It just happened to be that nature made him forget, given how vast and unconcerned by human problems it was.

Bright blue eyes opened wider, almost a crystal blue as they leaned at him eagerly. "You killed your own brother?" His voice was high with wonder, even excitement. Sasuke's expression hardened; he would have to take his leave soon if the fox intended to torment him. He couldn't even receive the privacy of his own thoughts, though he supposed that was the way with any god. Before he could respond, his host continued: "Stay here awhile. I can tell you're a traveler and you're very dirty. I don't often see outsiders. Won't you tell me your tales? Any news at all. Please?"

Having never before imagined that a god would request something of a human rather than ordering it, Sasuke felt obliged to comply with the request in spite of his surprise. As it turned out, there was a hot spring in the area behind the shrine and he eagerly made use of it, wondering for just a moment when the fox god returned, carrying a ladel and bucket with him. Sasuke's toes had just reached the water when he turned to see the youth flipping the wooden bucket over to make a seat in order to rinse himself off with small scoops of the onsen's hot, slightly sulphury water. The boy was indeed a smooth, light-brown colour all over his body - even his toes. Though not generally the type to peek, Sasuke found himself marvelling at the golden thatch of curls that he could see peeking out from between two otherwise hairless thighs.

"Yours are black, right?" the boy called over his shoulder, laughter in his tone. Sasuke's cheeks heated furiously and he turned away, frustrated that he couldn't hide a thing from the spirit to whom he was playing house guest - neither body or mind. "Come here and rinse off. There is enough dirt on you to turn that milky water black!" Though he was facing the other way, he could feel the tug of warm fingers on his wrist and allowed himself to be pulled towards the bucket, seating himself on it without looking at the fox again. On a large, grey rock to his side lay their clothes, folded neatly next to one another. His looked filthy and worn compared to his companion's, which appeared as if they were completely new; Sasuke had never bothered to change his clothes, only washing them where he could - they still bore his family crest.

One thing stood out among all of the things coursing through his brain, though - the brief yet lingering touch of fingers upon his wrist. He wasn't sure when the last time he had been touched by human hands had been. Yes, he'd reached for them to take food or exchange coins, but never actually touched them in close to the last year. Though his host's hands looked human, they were warmer and had a pulse beating in them far more similar to a fox than a boy. Sasuke marveled at him until a ladle swept over his head, dousing his dark hair with hot water until leaves and dirt ran free of it. "Wait," he said, pulling the tie from his top knot. His hair brushed along the back of his shoulders, but was so stiff with dirt that parts of it stuck up at the back like the tail of a duck. In no time at all it was rinsed free by capable fingers so bold as to run themselves through his hair, tickling his ears and scalp; it traced along the back of his neck and made him shiver. Every whisper-like brush of the fox's golden fingers was like a rush of blood to meet that scalp, followed by another to his heart. In a moment his chest was heaving as though he were a starved man near death, eating to save his life. Solitude had not been kind to him.

Sasuke spun about on his stool, grabbing the golden brown wrist as it sought to reach for him again. His dark eyes were smoldering and his heart hammering madly in its cage, he knew, as he stared up at the young man with golden hair glinting in the sunlight, who cast shadows over him as he stood over him, warm shadows that seemed so inviting. His eyes were bright and full of vitality; his smile was soft and understanding. Yes, the boy knew what was in his weary heart.

As though he couldn't help himself at all, he got to his yet aching feet and reached out for the golden boy before him, clutching the youth to his chest, hugging him as though he were home. He drank in the companionship like a parched man, needing nothing more than to hold - he hadn't known how badly he'd needed to feel the touch of warm human skin until it had reached him. Everything burst forth within him as though a dam of emotion and weariness and pain had exploded apart and all that had welled up inside him poured free. Tears ran freely down his face at the sensation of his chest pressed against another; their bodies were half-chilled with water that had cooled in the air and it felt so good that he was barely able to contain himself. More so than anything sexual, the mere feeling of not being alone was overwhelming to him; it was a balm upon his raw and burning heart. Gingerly, the spirit's hands found their way to Sasuke's back and held him close. Every brush of fingers against his back made the muscles beneath his skin jump with the contact, a heave and sigh of pleasure and of comfort. They stood that way for some time, with naked bodies aligned perfectly against one another, inhaling deeply of one another and in return exhaling loneliness.

There was an awkward moment when the fox attempted to pull away as Sasuke grappled, his fingers desperate not to lose purchase upon their long-lost treasure. Instead, he was guided gently into the water to rest his taut and tired body alongside the yellow-haired spirit; they never parted fingers even for a second.

For a few moments he hissed at the water's heat as it lapped over every cut and bruise he'd attempted to ignore in his journeys. They lay together in silence, utterly relaxed and seemingly comfortable in each other's company. It was as though a great cramp from within Sasuke had let go when the boy had reached for him, a cramp that had been making him sick with its tight and unforgiving weight.

He was dragged from his state of repose as water splashed next to him, getting him in the nose. "Aren't you going to tell me your name?" asked his bath mate, who even then had the fingers of one hand entwined loosely with Sasuke's beneath the water.

"You first," mumbled Sasuke, his free hand coming up through the water to wipe away the droplets that adorned his face. He was sweating from the heat but enjoyed it immensely as it felt as though all the poisons that had gathered within him were draining out of his pores as he lay there. He desperately wanted the shame and rage to drain away as well.

"Look," came the lovely, deep voice next to him. The fox was pointing at his stomach through the water. Sasuke moved wet onyx strands from where they obscured his eyes and looked down through the milky clouds, catching glimpses of a strange marking which appeared to be a spiral.

"Uzumaki?"

"That's my last name," smiled the boy next to him. "One more."

Sasuke did not return the smile. He was not the type to play games. Instead he closed his eyes and turned away, though his fingers did not leave their position where they lay cuddled up to this Uzumaki's.

"Okay, okay," laughed the boy. "You're no fun at all. It's Naruto, okay? Get it? Uzumaki Naruto?"

"Like a fishcake?" Sasuke blinked, wondering why a god would have such a ridiculous name.

"You'd like to think so, wouldn't you!" pouted the youth. "Maelstrom, you know? Spiral maelstrom? It's a cool name. ...Fine. Be quiet. You're not a very polite guest at all."

"Hn." Silence settled over them for a moment; Sasuke sat uncomfortable with the knowledge that he had somehow offended a god that had shown him nothing but kindness thus far. "Do you see the crest on my clothing?" he asked finally.

"An uchiwa fan, right?"

"Yes. My last name is Uchiha." The last of my kind, he thought bitterly. His mouth was set into a grim line, but as Naruto had said, he was a guest and should play by his host's rules. "My first name means assistant and helper."

"Something...suke? I don't know," frowned fox, newly discovered to be Uzumaki Naruto. "Give me a hint?"

"There's only one more syllable. How am I supposed to give you a hint?" chided Sasuke. Just as he did so, he imagined the characters for his name in his mind by habit. The boy got it in no time at all and Sasuke grimaced. There was no winning against a fox.

Silence again ensued and Sasuke found himself wondering at Naruto's kindness; yes, there were plenty of kind people in the world but few would have been accepting of his odd behaviour earlier. He wasn't in the habit of giving in to his basic instincts but perhaps he could consider the fox an exception due to his divine status. Either way, he wasn't about to make mention of it - would never mention it again if he could help it.

"It's nice to have company isn't it?" came a sleepy voice from his shoulder. Sasuke looked down to see the head of blond hair next to him, now damp and plastered against the boy's smooth forehead. "I like you very much, Sasuke. I'm glad you came to visit me."

If he'd been honest with himself, Sasuke would have said that his heart had warmed with the idea that he had been so thoroughly welcomed by anyone let alone a god. Instead, he said nothing and merely closed his eyes, listening drowsily to the whine of cicadas in the trees and the songs of birds under the midday sun.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello guys! Sorry if I've taken awhile to write this next chapter - I believe in writing good things rather than rushed things - so thank you for waiting. Lots of characters appear in this chapter and I have to say, I never realized how hard it would be to juggle that many personalities at once. Hopefully you'll enjoy this one too - please tell me what you think. Oh, and if you fear that this will never be finished, don't! I have the entire outline from start to finish already completed in detail anyway. **

Inky black eyes opened sleepily as Sasuke was roused from the sleep he'd been drifting into - thin, nimble fingers ghosted their way up his arm and round the back of his neck before a puff of warm, moist air caressed his ear. "Don't stay in the hot spring too long or you'll get sick, Uchiha Sasuke. You'll boil yourself alive."

Though his gaze sought purchase in blue eyes he found that he was alone, his palm resting lonesome against the rocks. Only his clothing remained spread out where he remembered it and there was indeed a wooden bucket and a ladle sitting atop a muddy puddle where he'd sat and rinsed. It was disconcerting to be left so abruptly and after all the time he'd spent in self-imposed solitude in the past year, the sensation of being by himself again grew tight in his chest, aching in the pit of his stomach. The edges of his eyes were raw from where he'd wept earlier but he wiped them anyway with fingers wrinkled by the hot water. "Naruto?" he called out softly, wondering if he'd imagined it all but unable to make himself believe it. Nonetheless, the sun had traveled but a short distance in the sky and he knew that he had a lot of traveling time ahead of him if he so chose.

Sasuke pushed himself up to a standing position, the palm of his hand automatically flattening over his groin as if to shield it from some unknown eyes. His gaze traveled around the clearing and over to the shrine, where he could see a small tinkling bell riding on the breeze. With a soft yawn he climbed out, unable to pry his thoughts away from his mysterious encounter with a spirit - he even debated hanging around to see if Naruto would return, but foxes were indeed tricky creatures and there was no telling when the youth might come back, if ever. Besides, he told himself, the fox had given him gift enough by unburdening him of his long-kept secrets and sharing in his private sorrows. "Thank you, Naruto," he said quietly into the clearing. It was better that way, to Sasuke; if they'd been face to face he never would have been able to say it.

He was just tying his hakama around his waist when he heard the sound of laughter and froze. It was force of habit that caused him to snatch up his katana and its accompanying shorter sword; there was no time to even affix his hair. The chatter of voices in friendly comraderie followed - female voices, he noted as he slid his weapons back onto his hip and drew himself up to full height. One could never be too cautious with strangers, in Sasuke's mind, nor with people one knew.

"Oh, Ino, you can't just..." came the voice of one young woman as she stepped into view. Whatever she had been scolding her friend about remained unsaid; she'd stopped abruptly as soon as she laid eyes upon Sasuke and her mouth was slightly open in shock. The girl was slender in her spring-green kimono with bamboo patterns upon it, attractive in a cutesy way with cherry lips and hair the soft pink of crested ibis wings. To her right stood a woman of similar age with fierce, dark eyes and long, long hair like pale yellow cream. As if by instinct this second figure drew her sleeve up to cover the surprise painted on her own features, then whispered in hushed tones as they both continued to stare. Sasuke's mouth drew into a grim line - this wasn't what he'd been expecting at all - and he moved to take his leave. His fingers nimbly moved to tie the top knot for his hair and he strode by them in his worn sandals, empty money pouch dangling from his wrist.

From out of the corner of his eye he spied a curious item clutched between the first girl's fingers and his eyes widened but a fraction - it was the rice bowl from which he had seen the fox eating earlier. He supposed they must have come to collect it. Sighing inwardly, he made it as far as the tiny shrine before they called out to him. "Hey!"

Sasuke turned to face them, suspicion in his eyes. Whatever they wanted from him, he didn't have it - he didn't have a single mon left, as he'd donated his last one to the fox god. "Sorry if we interrupted you, we were just going to use the hot spring," said the creamy blonde, reaching into her obi to produce a white cloth that was often used for bathing. "See? If you were going to use it..."

"You could join us?" her friend offered helpfully. The blonde, who Sasuke now saw was wearing a kimono in a gorgeous purple-red colour, turned to her friend and smacked her on the back of the head.

"What are you saying, Forehead? You can't just ask a stranger to bathe with you! Men and women aren't meant to go in hot springs together unless, unless..." the sentence trailed off into a blush. The pink-haired maiden glowered and rubbed her sore head, her tongue ready with a retort.

"I've already been," interrupted Sasuke, his voice calm and smooth. Before the words had left his lips he'd disappeared around the front of the shrine and was heading back along the path from whence he'd came. The clip-clip of wooden sandals against running feet trailed after him and the traveler sighed - he'd been starved for company earlier that day, but the expression 'using a meat ax when a knife would suffice' came to mind. "Yes?" he asked impatiently.

"We were just wondering if you - did you...?" The empty rice bowl sat peacefully on the palm of the pink-haired girl; she looked sheepish.

"Absolutely not!" grumbled Sasuke. If these two were from a nearby village, he would certainly be avoiding it in his travels. "I would never..." he began, then trailed off, his expression grim; he owed no explanations. "I'm going now," he told them in no uncertain terms. Stubbornly, his eyes searched the trees for even the slightest hint of blue. Before he could make his feet move, the blonde woman was before him with a peace offering in her hands and a blush on her cheeks; he recognized it as the pouch containing his onigiri, now squashed beyond recognition. Could the day get any more surreal?

As Sasuke snatched the possession from her grasp, he wondered at his own irritability. Whatever his problems were, they were his own - he could at least force himself to show a lick of gratitude. "Thank you," he murmured. They looked at him expectantly as though he would say more but when no further words could be pried from the tight line of his mouth, they filled the silence with their own conversation.

"I'm Sakura," said the one who seemed to be in the habit of making lewd suggestions - surprising given how innocent she looked. "This is Ino. We're from the village down the way. I'm sorry that Ino-pig ruined your food, um," and there she paused, looking very unsure of herself. Sasuke was almost convinced she'd practiced looking bashful before. "If you'd like, we could replace those for you and send you on your way."

The suggestion gave Sasuke pause. He was certain that somewhere inside he was merely looking for an excuse, was angry with himself for looking for an excuse to stay in the area just a little bit longer. It was with reluctance that he accepted their invitation and the trio traipsed through the long grass, weaving on and off the too-narrow path as it continued off in the opposite direction from the one that the traveler had so fatefully chosen earlier that day.

Though the girls were quick and eager with their speech, Sasuke remained more or less silent for the trip; when he did respond at all to their questions it was largely in grunts of affirmation or denial. After all, he wasn't in the habit of speaking to people except to thank them for their hospitality. His voice was clouded from disuse and he was certainly not interested in sharing his story. It would be best to collect his provisions and quickly be on his way again, he decided.

The village was but a short distance away and yet there seemed to be plenty of time for the world-weary Sasuke to drift on thoughts of his life thus far. In fact, those very thoughts were prompted by the questions which drew forth from the girls' mouths - villagers' questions, ones that only the naive would think to ask. He deftly avoided them but, like a volley of arrows, even if the armour of his hardened soul could withstand the onslaught it did not come away unscathed and his heart remained pierced by their tendency to bring up topics he did not care to think about; the most sharply barbed lodged within.

Innocent as the girls were, he wished they'd known better than to ask things that they were not prepared to hear the answers for. "Where are you from? Where are you going? Why are you alone?" and so on sang along the tautly-pulled nerves within him. He shook his head at them all in response, but in lieu of his unspoken words memories came unbidden into his mind - memories of himself in finery, standing solemnly by his elder brother's side as they stood upon the veranda surrounding their spacious home:

Servants pushed open sliding paper doors with a bow and scurried along the walkways in between the various wings, fistfuls of their kimonos bunched up to aid in their haste. In the vast, sand-covered courtyard which formed the center of the home he and his brother had trained countless days together training in the arts of swordsmanship and archery, had recited Buddhist sutras to one another and practiced their calligraphy with sticks in the sand. He'd shed blood there and learned of what it was to be a man there in his brother's shadow. He'd even fumbled his way through a few love affairs within the grounds of their elegant home; he'd learned the breadth and width of a woman's heart and of a man's - or so he thought and felt, though his noble and worthy brother had laughed quietly every time Sasuke had played at being a grown-up.

And still he remembered the scene in washed out colours with the warm but distant voice of his idol and muse, his dear Itachi, speaking in deep and genuine tones to his right. "I want you to best me someday little brother," he'd said. He remembered his only sibling as being tall somehow though there had been little difference in height between them. "I know you will, but never ever think that what you want will come easily for you. Not even with your Uchiha name. I will not give you your victory with passivity. You will have to wrench it from my lifeless fingers." Itachi had turned to Sasuke then, clutching at the boy's lanky teenage arms in earnestness. In purposeful strides, the elder of the Uchiha heirs had written a famous proverb incorrectly in the sand and Sasuke had teased him for it - his brother never ever made an incorrect move, never acted without thinking seriously of every possible consequence first. Itachi had chuckled then and Sasuke could not figure out for the life of him what could be so darkly funny. Instead of responding, he'd stared at the writing in the sand, listened to the tinkling of a bell hanging from the eaves and the babbling of a brook that ran alongside their ancestral home. It would be a long, horrible time before Sasuke would discover why Itachi had written it as he had -'face-follow-belly-back', meaning 'to be obedient on the face with betrayal in one's heart', with face and heart reversed.

In those days, Sasuke had been pale and smooth like a lacquered wooden doll, with beautiful, puffy lips seemingly painted on a face that still knew what it was to smile. His katana had not yet known what it felt like to sink into the body of a man and soak i n the life that flowed out therein. Those days were utterly beyond him now.

Still there was a sense of familiarity that washed over him as he came to the edge of the village. It was a fair size and quite surprising to him that he'd nearly walked right past it in his dazed state. People were everywhere that he could see, from brand new babies strapped to their mother's backs to wrinkled old men with loud voices who told stories of their youth in boastful voices. Little children ran by and leaped over his feet as they waved about kites and pinwheels - everyone in the village seemed to be of a lively, resourceful nature, woven of the same cloth as one another. A community quite similar to the one that his family had presided over, though the area's lord was not in sight. What he could see, however, were groups of men and women working industriously to set up decorations and build stands here and there along the sides of the road, blocking out the shop fronts and homes that lined the main street. They were preparing for a festival, it seemed.

Sasuke's black eyes turned up toward the sun, considering briefly before he realized that it was August, which meant... "Our Obon festival is in three days," chirped the aptly-named Sakura. The traveler murmured something vague and appreciative, wondering how it had neared the end of the summer without his notice. Ino walked along on his right and Sakura to his left, explaining that the festival would of course feature dancing in which the girls would be leading the village and would he be interested in staying those couple of days to watch them dance and join in the festivities. He definitely would not, though for the moment he just nodded politely and listened to his stomach continue to rumble.

"We'll also be sending lanterns out along the river," added Ino in a more sombre tone. "I lost my grandmother this past year, so there will be a new one for me to send this time. Oh! Here we are, the Akimichi shop. They make excellent food, seriously. Anything you can name, they make it!" She gave him a doe-eyed gaze, the kind that girls seemed to innately know how to do in order to snare like the likes of hapless men. Sasuke was not amused.

Watching the girl's purple kimono rustle about from the corner of his eye, Sasuke had barely settled his aching limbs onto a stool between the two girls when he was promptly met with the chubbiest man he had seen in a long, long time. Unconsciously his hand rubbed across his own thin and empty stomach, well muscled though mostly due to having no fat to cover it any longer. Rising from his seat, he bowed to what was most certainly the proprietor of the cramped establishment. Nearly every seat in the place was filled.

"Uchiha Sasuke. Pleased to make your acquaintance," he said softly. He hated the sound of his name on his own tongue.

The round fellow's thin eyes crinkled at the corners as he smiled and returned the gesture, his good nature showing immediately. "Look at that! A stranger on this mountain. That's a rare case isn't it, Shikamaru?"

Next to Ino, a sleepy-faced man in field worker's clothes lifted his head momentarily from its spot on the countertop. "That's because we aren't located anywhere that people can find us," his even sleepier voice intoned. "It's a marvel that anyone manages to get lost enough to end up here. Give me another cup of sake, will you?"

"You're supposed to be out checking on the rice fields aren't you?" Ino called accusingly. Sasuke peered over her shoulder at the man, who merely turned his head to face the other way as it rested lazily on the wood. To his right, Sakura had begun to play footsies with him by clacking her sandal lightly against his. In the meantime, Akimichi Chouji, the current generation's heir to the shop, poured more drink into his friend's cup and set one out for Sasuke.

Long, smooth fingers snaked out to cover the small clay item before any sake could be poured into it. "I haven't any money," he said smoothly. Once upon a time, that would have been an impossible situation for an Uchiha. With an inward scowl he scolded himself for following the two girls; he thought they'd let him share in their supper, not drag him to a shop and try and coerce him into joining the local festival of the dead.

There was only the slightest pause in Chouji's movements before the larger man swatted his hand away and filled the cup - he even left the bottle next to Sasuke, which earned him a rather half-assed glare from the lazy Shikamaru down the way. "It's on the house. I expect you to drink all of it!" A genuine laugh boomed through the man, shaking his belly beneath the red cloth in which he was clothed. The girls held out their cups expectantly and Sasuke fought the urge to roll his eyes as he poured some for them. A moment later a platter of food appeared before him as well, with a bowl of rice, some pickled vegetables, beans and a choice piece of grilled fish; his mouth nearly watered as he scooped up the chopsticks.

Barely a moment had passed when the banner cloth acting as a door moved aside again to receive three more customers. Three pairs of eyes scanned the room, noting as they approached the counter that there was no longer a single seat available in the place. A man in pale grey with his kimono sleeves tied back strode forward, leading the other two in a manner that reminded Sasuke very much of Itachi. He was disturbed and intrigued.

For reasons not readily available to a stranger in the town, this leader fellow's hair was even longer than the typical style, tied back as though he were a rounin in a long, mahogany ponytail - another thing that reminded Sasuke of Itachi. His companions were a young woman with dark eyes and a springy step and... something, some_one_ else. Sasuke's mind barely wanted to process the strange fellow in green construction worker's clothes let alone think of a way to describe him; it was good that he was a man of few words - he was certain that anything he tried to say just then would contain the word 'eyebrows'.

"There aren't any seats," muttered the long-haired man, his arms folded across his chest in a gesture that was sure to suggest a kind of passive-aggressive dissatisfaction - with everything. The girl, with her hair in an elaborate up-do, called out to Chouji to try and remedy the situation. Eyebrows' eyes locked in on Sakura and lit up with single-minded lust. Sasuke continued to sip his sake. Somehow to his left, Ino had drawn Shikamaru into an argument to which he kept replying, "I can't be bothered. It's too much of a bother." Ah, Sasuke thought, this is what it's like to be normal.

Somehow he wasn't surprised that their local god was a tricky fox.

"There aren't any seats right now, Tenten - hello Neji, Lee..." Chouji explained apologetically. "As soon as they're open, you know my favourite guard patrol can have them." He turned his head and boomed, "Oi, Konohamaru! Save the next three seats for Team Guy, got it?"

The loudness of his voice was enough to send several customers scrambling for their money and their exit. A bratty looking teenager in the shop's uniform nodded, causing his hachimaki to slip from his forehead and down over his eyes.

"Much obliged," Neji returned in his deep, deep voice that seemed to resonate within his very chest. The man seemed used to making grand speeches, if Sasuke's assumptions were correct; here was a member of the local aristocracy.

"Teams?" asked Sasuke as he pressed the bones out of his piece of fish. Neji and Tenten seemed to have gone to sit down, while Lee remained glued to his spot. Interesting. And those eyebrows...!

"Everyone in Konoha has teams - did I tell you our village name is Konoha?" Ino giggled sheepishly. Sasuke fought the urge to roll his eyes. "The teams are for patrolling the area surrounding the village. There are three main areas for that - the waterfall, the shrine and the forest just south of here, down the mountain."

"Hence the three person teams," droned Shikamaru. Sasuke wondered when speaking had become a chore, though he could relate somewhat. He was speaking more today than he had in recent memory.

"The adorable Ino and Shikamaru are on my team," cried Chouji happily. "They're the greatest teammates ever, though," and here he lowered his voice to a whisper (or as close to a whisper as he could manage), "I'm certain they'll be married by the end of this year."

Ino went beet red, immediately turning away from the man to her left and his messy top knot. Boldly, her right arm slipped through the loop that Sasuke's left formed - he'd been resting his hand on his thigh. "Well, Shikamaru has competition now," she sniffed. Sasuke froze in his seat.

"Ino-pig, just because you touch the man doesn't mean he wants it!" yelled Sakura, grabbing Sasuke's right arm. His chopsticks fell from his fingers and clattered to the plate. "Get your own!"

"Sakura," came a pleading voice from over Sakura's shoulder. Eyebrows - er, Lee, was gazing at her sadly from his round, round eyes and their too-long lashes. Sasuke was tempted to shudder. "Sakura, I've been in love with you since the moment I saw you!" he cried ardently. "When will you accept my advances?"

The traveler's eyes roamed over to Shikamaru, who still hadn't turned back towards them and then across to Lee, who looked as if he were about to cry. "I challenge you, stranger! You are my rival! We will fight for the heart of fair Sakura!" And with that, Eyebrows formed a guts pose, ready for action.

"Hmph. You can have her," Sasuke said flatly. It wasn't that he was a cruel man, it was just that sometimes one had to be firm with one's words. "Now then, Akimichi, I need to find some way to repay your kindness for today. Perhaps there is some sort of work that I may do to settle up?" After all, an Uchiha never accepted handouts, not even when there was only one of them left. Along the way he'd been known to fix fences and wells, harvest crops, kill dangerous beasts and from time to time even people provided the cause stayed on the right side of morality.

Chouji sighed, ready to re-inform him that the meal had in fact been on the house and therefore not something he was meant to pay for when Sakura cut him off. The proprietor marveled at the way the girl could go from crestfallen to determined in the blink of an eye. "I have an idea, I know what you can do tonight. " She rose from her seat and smoothed out the wrinkled bamboo on her kimono, a fire burning in her green eyes. Sasuke followed her lead as Chouji nodded to them and bade them all farewell. As they exited the shop together, Ino stayed behind to gentle prod Shikamaru out of whatever funk the man had fallen into and Lee reluctantly joined his teammates.

"To the end of the village," called the girl clearly, her pace quick enough to force him into a trot. There was hurt in her voice still, but Sasuke couldn't figure out why she would be so offended when they'd only met that day; clearly Lee had been rejected more times than he could count and here she was suffering over a little one by a complete stranger. Girls' hearts were too, too mysterious.

At the far end of the road, the opposite to where Sasuke had first stumbled across the shrine, larger houses spread out compound-style to house large numbers of people. It was obvious that all of the major clans lived there; he wondered which one belonged to Neji's family. His own home had been in such a place - had been the largest and most opulent of all of these. From the fog of his thoughts, Sakura's voice came to him, explaining that here was the Hyuuga household and there was the Aburame household and over there, the largest but somehow the most humble looking was the Inuzuka family home. At the front entrance of the last of these was a man with steel-grey hair bowing to some hidden person as he exited, clothed in a smoke grey kimono and olive green hakama. Sasuke's heart stopped in his chest.

Wooden sandals clip-clipped down the stairs as that same man strode out to greet them, clearly very familiar with Sakura. As the face came into view, bile rose within Sasuke's throat, sick with recognition. He paled, his hand sliding to the hilt of his katana in comfort. Sakura hadn't seemed to notice, but the man with a face from long ago noticed him immediately and, grinning widely beneath his mask, called out to him:

"Ah, Sasuke! I was wondering if we'd ever meet again. How fortuitous."


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you very much, dear readers! I wrote this next bit rather quickly - to a certain someone who was disappointed in the lack of Naruto last time, there is plenty of him this time. Poor Sasuke seems to have a rough time in this chapter and things begin to really get complex. If some are you leave this chapter going 'WHAT? Ahh!" then I'll feel I've done my job. I'll keep updating as soon as I get through the chapters. Please feel free to review, send me a message or anything like that.  
**

"I haven't a word in the world to say to you," growled Sasuke. He could feel the infamous Uchiha temper rising within him, setting fire to his nerves and curling his fingers into fists. The sensation was coupled with a profound sadness the likes of which he knew that he would never be able to express or receive closure to - his was a tale that ended in tragedy, surely. The weight of this rage and pain forced his head to drop upon his chest, but he did not squeeze his eyes shut against it all - would not give in like that.

In the distance a bird dared to chirp and he'd reached his limit; the former aristocrat turned on his heel and began to leave before he gave in to the temptation of the steel upon his hip, though if asked to say he did not know whom it would be directed at. His mind whispered bitterly of his family. Stupid, stupid Kakashi. A man he had respected and depended on, once.

All the while the man drawn in shades of grey chuckled softly, apparently unaffected by whatever Sasuke was suffering from. To their side, fresh-faced Sakura had taken a step back, presumably in fright; the atmosphere between them was crackling in its intensity like lightning. Sasuke kept his head down even then - it was said that his eyes were as black as a bottomless well because no light existed therein, and whatever the fox Naruto had done to change that earlier that day was slipping away from him again.

"You two know each other?" the girl asked in a soft voice of incredulity. "I thought, Kakashi, I thought...Everyone in the place where you used to live had died?" Her jade green eyes turned anxiously upon the retreating back of Sasuke as though she were seeing a ghost - in a way, he was.

Kakashi's smile slipped from beneath his mask only the merest fraction of an inch, but that was enough for a man as unreadable and unpredictable as he was. As it was, Sasuke did not see this look which spoke volumes, would not turn to face his former mentor. "Everyone did die...except for a pair of brothers." There was no tightness to his voice, though it should have been there. It was not fair, what the Uchiha brothers had suffered through. It was a story as tragic as the old tales of lovers jumping to their death over ocean cliffs or samurai being run through by their most trusted advisors - yes, just like that, a tale as old and true to Japan as to be a very piece of the fabric of their oral history. Kakashi was certain that if anyone were allowed to actually know the story, it would be so.

Sasuke shook with anger at these words - Kakashi dared to say these words! - to the point where he almost sank to his knees - except that he would not give in like that, had not yet given in to the world crumbling within himself, not for all the exhaustion he bore that sleep would not fix, not for all the unfathomable truths he had yet to properly face. He turned back to face Kakashi, a man he'd once respected. Rage bubbled up within his throat and his voice came out as a hiss: "I do have a word to say to you: traitor." His voice was unrecognizable even to himself.

If Sakura had thought that the two men might come to blows before, she was likely certain that they were about to fight to the death by now. Her hand came up between them and Sasuke overlooked it completely until she addressed him: "I thought you wanted to repay Chouji for his kindness."

Sasuke could have screamed. His sense of decorum battled out the savagery within him and he wondered why the ridiculous girls couldn't just have given him some food and let him _go_ - this village was unbearable. Kakashi was staring at him very, very seriously and yet he did not seem to feel it; all he could hear was the wind rustling in the trees, the sound of wood being beaten into shape for the upcoming festival, the distant shrieks of laughter. His eyes swiveled about to regard the pink-haired woman and the young, green colour of her kimono spoke to him of an untainted soul - whatever problems he had, he would deal with them. Alone. "Yes," he managed in a weary tone.

"My team," she began softly, "Was Team 7. In the past few years we have lost members for...reasons and I have been unable to do guard duty like the others in this village. When Kakashi came along we became a two person team - he's been very helpful to me and I am grateful, however you may feel about him. If you decide to join us for guard duty tonight, you will be paid fairly for your efforts." Her voice spoke of determination, that same curious switch from flaky to serious in the blink of an eye.

Kakashi was absolutely nonchalant.

Sasuke loathed the idea of saying that he was on the same team as Kakashi, but duty-bound to repay his debt. He weighed the options, looking around at the massive homes surrounding them, reminded once again of his own birthplace, now in ruination. Through the trees he could swear that once again he saw blue eyes and in that moment he was convinced to stay. If there was a chance that he might see Naruto again, he would take it. He needed the balm of the playful god's presence once more, if only once. "We split up, correct?"

Sakura smiled at his tone - he knew for himself that it was all business. He'd learned it from his father. Ah, his father. "Correct!"

"I'll take the direction of the shrine then," he said. When they raised eyebrows at him he added, "I don't know either of the other directions." He wouldn't even know how to begin to explain how he'd actually seen their (their?) shrine's deity. Sasuke scowled at Kakashi again as he thought of the new life the man had made away from his broken home. "See you in the morning," he said pointedly by way of a good-bye.

"Sasuke," came the now stern voice of Kakashi. "I..." Never betrayed you was what he seemed to be trying to achieve, but changed course: "Please consider well what happens when you determine the facts without checking your sources first."

Sasuke's dark eyes widened at this - did Kakashi know how it had turned out in the end? Did he know what had happened to Itachi? Impossible...no, it was impossible, it had to be. With a dismissive grunt and a well-practiced, elegant bow, Sasuke disappeared into the trees to the hot spring and, with any luck, the fox.

One phrase played on his mind: Betrayal on the face, obedience in the heart.

_Itachi..._

By the time Sasuke had navigated his way through the throngs of people the sun had begun to set in the sky; golden remnants of light sparkled down through the leaves of the trees and everyone was beginning to greet one another in the village, gathering here and there to give thanks for a hard day's work and enjoy the excellent company of people they'd known since they were born. In the far, far distance he could hear the rich, resounding bell of an unseen temple and was amazed at how much the grand forest had hidden. Upon a small pedestal at one end of the village, a girl with deep blue hair and eyes like mother-of-pearl quaked and quaked and Sasuke wondered why she was up there until she began to sing in the clearest, most beautiful voice he'd heard in a long, long time.

_The sky is softly glowing with the setting sun, night is drawing near_

_ The bell of the mountain temple has just begun to ring -_

_ Hand in hand, let us all return home_

_ With the flight of the crows, let us return_

Since his mother, he'd supposed. His eyes followed her with curiosity even as he continued, jostled this way and that by people too wrapped up in their conversations to notice even a stranger in their atmosphere of the village was so warm and inviting - truly a home. Sasuke was unspeakably jealous; he felt as though he were a beggar peering through the shoji doors of a family home. Shaking his head, he continued on almost desperately towards the shrine. Every note of the girl's song was a sharp pain; a needle in his heart.

_As the children returned home at the end of the day_

_ And the great round moon rose so bright_

_ Then the little birds began to dream_

_ And the stars glittered golden in the sky. _

The last streaks of muted pink and gold gave way to twilight and the first stars of night as Sasuke crawled up the steps of the shrine and threw himself down upon the platform there, his eyes dry but aching and raw with effort. It's just as I thought, he said to himself, being with people is too much for a man like me.

"You can't possibly mean that!" laughed a familiar voice; if 'blond' were a sound, Naruto's voice would surely have captured its essence. Sasuke forced his lips to curve a little at this, though it made the muscles he was clenching in his cheeks hurt. "People are wonderful, Sasuke Uchiha."

It was the second time the boy-god had called him that and he was beginning to feel as though Naruto was forcing him to remember his family name, to live with what he wanted to forget. As though he hadn't been trying to do that very thing. The golden puff of hair that covered the fox's head came into view as the youth stepped from the doors of the tiny shrine, away from whatever sacred objects were enclosed within. He was wearing a white kimono now with a navy blue hakama tied at his waist. Though the spirit was indeed beautiful in these young shadows of night, Sasuke couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

"I would have never chosen those colours for you," he mumbled in amusement as Naruto sat down by his side. Caramel-coloured toes swung to and fro over the edge of the stage, bare this time.

"Oh?"

"I would have chosen something more obnoxious for you," Sasuke teased. Was he actually attempting to make a joke?

"My favourite colour..." Began Naruto, looking around as though it were a big secret. He leaned over Sasuke's splayed out form and whispered in his ear, "Is orange."

The same warm puff of moist air tickled along Sasuke's cheek and he shivered. Turning his head to look up at Naruto, he realized they were but a hair's breadth away from touching cheek to cheek. He regarded the crystal clear blue eyes, dark like Chinese bell flowers in the dim light; he held that gaze as long as he could bear it - tried to ignore the warm, nervous feeling curling within him.

After a moment he scrambled up with a gasp - the release of a breath he hadn't known he was holding. He settled down by Naruto's side and let the sandal straps dangle from his own toes, swinging back and forth as he was lost in his thoughts. He nearly did a double take when he noticed that the navy blue over-skirt had now become a burnt orange. He expressed this in words with a thoughtful "Hn" while in his mind, he reminded himself that he was becoming obsessed with a fox - exactly what he'd warned himself of in the beginning.

They sat in silence together for a few moments, Sasuke not needing to speak in order to enjoy the presence of Naruto, but his eyes kept straying to the young man - how soft he looked, how clean and pure and lovely, how warm he'd been, how fast his heart had beat within his human-looking chest. But you really aren't human are you, Sasuke thought as he considered the orange hakama.

By his side, a pained look came over the boy's features - a tightening of the corners of those fluted lips, a dimming of those shining blue eyes - and it occurred to Sasuke that Naruto had been listening in on his thoughts again. He blushed at that, tucking his face against his chest to hide the warmth of his cheeks. With a bright, almost convincing smile Naruto was back again, poking Sasuke in the side and full of sudden energy. "I thought you were on guard duty!"

"I never told you that," Sasuke returned wryly.

"And I," cried Naruto, "Never said I wouldn't read your mind! Jerk," he snickered.

A god had just called him a jerk. A _god_ had just called him a jerk. Sasuke was incredulous. He was torn between being polite to deities and rising to the challenge - and felt his more basic instincts kick in. "I'm a jerk, but you're a brat. I think that's worse," he harrumphed.

"Ass."

"Loser."

"Um...um...jerk!"

"You said that one already, stupid."

"So?"

And so it continued, the two young men (if either could truly be called such) baiting and pestering one another like old friends or childhood enemies; like brothers; like companions. Like two people who were dear to one another despite the short time that had passed since they'd met.

Sasuke sighed, the last waves of quiet laughter ebbing from within as he stood to take his leave. "At the very least, I should make a round of the area and check to make sure that everything is all right. I take my work very seriously."

"You can't," breathed Naruto. There was desperation in his voice and his smooth, tan fingers clutched at pale wrists. "Not right now" His gaze went beyond Sasuke's shoulder, off into the black mass of trees, into the humming of night insects and the whistling of the breeze and if the dark-eyed traveler was not mistaken, there was _fear _in those eyes_._ The earnestness in Naruto's voice shocked Sasuke and he turned to look, the sound of an eerie music reaching his ears just as Naruto yanked him into the confines of the shrine's single room, shutting the door tight behind them.

The beating of drums and tinny scream of a flute drew closer and with it a myriad of voices, cackling and yowling as though in evil laughter. It sounded as though and endless parade of demons was approaching the shrine and Sasuke was certain he would have been petrified if it weren't for the quaking of a fox by his side. "Naruto?" he hissed softly. It was nigh on pitch black within the tiny room and all he could see was the faintest glint of wide blue eyes. "Naruto!"

"Shhh," pleaded the boy.

Why? thought Sasuke, but no answer was forthcoming. The inhuman laughter grew louder still; whatever it was - whatever they _were_ - was outside the door now. Long, pale arms drew instinctively to shield the shivering blond creature by his side. One arm held the boy tight against him and his sword-hand rested on his katana, ready for action. He waited, barely daring to breathe. A sour, putrid odour of blood and sick and rotting meat wafted in from the creatures and still their voices rose in a great din until some unseen gesture brought everything to an abrupt halt. In the background the slow, singular beating of a drum set the rhythm fot the conversation that followed:

"How clever we are, dear brothers, dear sisters!" rasped a voice like steel screeching upon rocks. Sasuke shifted on his haunches, resisting the instinct to back away; even if he'd wanted to, there was no where to go. "We shall eat a feast this year, oh we shall eat a feast!"

"Clever us, clever us," another voice joined in - one that could only be described as a sustained and blood-curdling scream.

"Clever us to blame a fox," giggled another that might have been easily mistaken for that of a human child. It made Sasuke feel sick inside.

"Soft and juicy, red, red meat!" said yet another.

"The most scrumptious food to crunch and munch!"

A cacophony of twisted laughter arose as the group congratulated itself until the human hiding in their midst was dizzy with it all. He longed to cover his ears but could not leave his defensive stance. His calves burned from crouching and Naruto's head was buried in the folds of cloth upon his chest.

Naruto, thought Sasuke - Naruto, are you listening to me? A rustle against his chest told him that he was. What is this? What is going on?

"Do you suppose it will be as delicious as last time?" came a curious, scraping voice. They all seemed to fall silent then, pondering this question very seriously.

"I can't imagine anything could be so delicious," another murmured in so far as it could do so. A few others growled in agreement.

"It doesn't matter!" cackled the first voice in vicious glee. "We will feast and feast again!"

"Hurrah!" came the nightmarish refrain.

"But let's be sure that Akamaru doesn't find out," cooed the childlike voice.

"Hear hear! Let no one ever tell Akamaru!" called another, "For he is the only one..."

A yell interrupted whatever was coming next. "The moon is low in the sky and someone approaches!" With that, even the drum ceased to drone and the voices - the smell - vanished. Sasuke loosened his grip on Naruto and fell to his hands and knees. He had honestly never been so frightened in his life, never been so overwhelmed barring the day that his parents had died... There was no room in is panicked thoughts to even begin to wonder what great warrior Akamaru might be.

There was indeed another approaching though, as the creatures had said - Sasuke froze again, knowing that if he was found within the area otherwise offlimits to normal folk, things would not bode well for him. Moreover, nearly the entire night had passed like some madman's dream and he hadn't patrolled as he was meant to do. How could it have been so long? Only the aching of his stiff limbs told the tale.

"Naruto!" called a strong, youthful voice just as tiny streams of sunrise began to creep through the cracks in the wood. Sasuke blinked - all this time he'd thought he was the only one - he hadn't mentioned Naruto in case he turned out to be quietly insane.

"Naruto! Somehow you're in there, aren't you?" this voice, a decidedly human voice and male, sounded hopeful. Dark eyes fought to adjust to the scraps of light within the tiny, dusty room. In the back of his mind he realised that there were jars all around them, but he was too busy listening to this unseen visitor.

"Somehow you must still exist," continued the young man from beyond the shrine doors. His tone had sunk into the depths of regret now. "Please listen to me, Naruto. It's me, Kiba. It's me." And from within, tanned fingers pressed softly against the doors but the fox spirit did not answer. The blue eyes that Sasuke marvelled in were shut tight with pain.

"Naruto!" cried Kiba hoarsely...whoever he might be, he was begging now. "I know you're there, you've never come to say goodbye to me, though you and I were best friends so I know..." and here the voice collapsed into sobs, unnatural and slow in coming. Whoever Kiba was, he was not a man who knew how to let himself cry. At times he even sounded like the whining of a dog. Fists banged against the shrine doors and slid down in despair. "I know that you haven't left. Maybe you don't want to talk to us and I understand that my friend, but they're going to take Hinata this time and she was promised to me! She might have been in love with you but she was promised to me! I can't let this happen, Naruto, not to the woman I love. Please! Help me!"

Sasuke sat back helplessly. His lungs were bursting from holding his breath and all he could do was observe the exchange in two halves - one silent, the other unseen. Eventually the pounding turned to desperate scratching; human fingers clawing at the doors as though waiting to be let in. In time that too died down and it became clear that the mysterious Kiba had left.

Dark eyes peered out of the doors as they creaked open slowly, scanning the area to make sure that the coast was clear before he made his exit. With his hakama gathered close to his body, Sasuke crept out of the shrine and in a heartbeat Naruto was beside him. As his black, black hair floated up like feathers on the morning wind, as he sucked in lungfuls of cool, fresh air instead of dust and heat, as his almond eyes stared silently into the distance, he did not bother to turn to the fox at his side.

Naruto gritted his teeth. "Don't you judge me," he bit out. "You don't know what you've seen."

"No, I don't," admitted Sasuke. His voice was flat and dull. "How can I judge a god, anyway? ...If that's what you are."

The custard coloured hair of an angry fox god stood on end as he seethed. A red aura seemed to crackle through him - there was a gossamer outline of crimson lightning over Naruto with twitching ears and nine writhing tails, though Sasuke could not find it within himself to react. He had run the gamut of human emotion that night and had nothing left to give.

The crimson lines died away and once again Sasuke found himself next to Naruto as he ever was - as he had known him in their brief acquaitance - as he hadn't known him at all.

"How can you be like that?" Naruto sighed exasperatedly. "You, the man who never tells a story, are mad at me for not telling mine!"

"You could drag my story out of my brain at any time," the wayfarer replied softly. "I couldn't do the same for you."

"And another thing, you're the only one I could tell!"

"So tell me," Sasuke suggested.

"Someday...not now. Not this year, not this month, not this week." Naruto whimpered; it sounded more like a request than a statement.

If he'd had it in him to do so, Sasuke would have laughed. "Someday! When? When I pass by these parts again and I'm an old man and you're... you're whatever you are?"

"I thought..."

A heavy sigh drowned out any intention Naruto might have had of finishing his sentence. The boy looked about ready to start a fight; Sasuke should have known it was all a very bad idea to stay.

"You've seen sides of me that no one, I mean - I felt a bond with you, Naruto. I wondered, I wondered what the hell that was all about and now I think I know." Sasuke's deep, quiet voice came out in a long rumble; he couldn't remember himself ever feeling so inclined to speak before, let alone passionately. "You could hear all the things I couldn't bring myself to say. I just didn't realize how one-sided it all was." His features twisted bitterly. "I don't even know why I'm telling you now!" How could Naruto just leave him in the dark about these things? How could a spirit - a whatever he was from an obscure shrine reach out and literally touch him but not say a word of explanation or defense?

"Sasuke," whispered the fox, scrubbing his fists over his dry and tired eyes like a child, eyes that hadn't blinked for a second through Sasuke's speech. "Please understand me, I'm not trying to, didn't want to...I can't bear to say it all out loud." The sentence carried an unspoken 'I'm like you' at the end. And just like that his mood changed wildly again, his voice sounding more and more like a boy and less like a man. "Besides, you didn't have to protect me back there, you jerk! You're the one who needs protecting!"

Sasuke stared at him in disbelief and still Naruto's blue eyes were so very charming, unlike anything he'd ever seen before. He didn't try to reply, but Naruto continued. "And I'm not the only one who knows your deep dark secrets, anyway!"

Pale pink lips that once upon a time had looked like sweet and innocent like those of a wooden doll dropped open in surprise. He blinked and in that short space of time Sasuke found that he was once again alone, standing without his companion upon the steps of that accursed shrine that had drawn him back like an addiction. His features settled into his characteristic Uchiha frown and as he looked down along the path before him he witnessed the approach of one Kakashi Hatake, so-called teammate and former teacher, come to collect him from guard duty. Though it was in bad form at such a sacred location, Sasuke could not help but curse.


	4. Chapter 4

"How eventful was your night?" asked Kakashi, simultaneously both jovial and patronizing. Sasuke had certainly not missed that aspect of the man's personality.

"If I didn't know what a swordsman you are, I'd cut you down where you stand Hatake," grumbled Sasuke, ignoring the question as he attempted to push past. An arm swung out to stop him.

"That's not much of an answer is it, teammate?"

"What do you want to hear? There's nothing to report." To you, anyway, Sasuke thought.

His old teacher laughed again, a clear and genuine laugh - somehow aware that the last living Uchiha before him was lying. He'd always been able to tell. "Did you even look? These forests are not empty, my dear student. Strange things live in these woods: not human, not animal..." At this, Sasuke tensed in the slightest way, a way that only someone who had practically raised him might notice. "Ah...so you did notice things. You're just a liar." No further information was to be drawn from the younger man's lips, so he continued: "Sakura will be round soon; this is where we always meet."

The soft pink shape of Sasuke's lips drew into a grim line as he made to ignore Kakashi and the older man ignored it, strolling about casually and stretching his legs.

"I meant what I said yesterday," came the quiet rumble of Sasuke's voice, "You betrayed our family. I should kill you here and now."

A silver eyebrow arched questioningly: somehow he still looked upon the near-hermit before him as a child - the child he'd helped to mold from a soft, bright-faced boy into the hardened man he'd become. "You've grown tired Sasuke. It's obvious just by looking at you. You don't even care to think about what it all might mean anymore - there's no more of your clan's renowned thirst for greatness in you; just blood lust and anger." A sigh struggled from his lips, the merest hitch in his otherwise calm and steady breathing. "I'd been looking forward to meeting the men that you and your brother were going to become. It seems impossible now though," he paused long enough to wave to a tired but cheerful Sakura as she approached, "And that's a damn shame."

"You left the night that he - that everyone was murdered. was left alone while you ran away." Though the reply was barely audible, it was laced with pain and venom.

"I wasn't running away, I was running _after_. There is a big difference. You have two options here Sasuke - to learn the raw and horrific truth or to chase your own truth down the end of the sword and into anyone who might shatter your delusions. Good morning Sakura!"

"A good morning to you Kakashi. Sasuke," she greeted, bowing to each in turn. "Thank you for your diligent work, here is your pay." Two identical pouches with a handful of oval coins were dropped into their hands, though the young woman blushed as her fingertips stroked the younger man's accidentally and without a word the grey-haired fellow had started towards the village again, leaving Sakura to scramble in a split-second decision to follow. Sasuke met her light green eyes as she glanced over her shoulder at him and he supposed that in another lifetime she might not have been so bad.

As things were though, he was, in his own opinion, not capable of the affection necessary to be a husband, nor to be tender or perhaps even kind to the fairer sex. His feverish brain was preoccupied by thoughts of men - his brother, his former teacher, even the mysterious Kiba and how he might relate to Naruto.

Waiting what he felt was a safe interval of time, Sasuke sighed and, clutching his newly earned money, trailed along behind the pair with thoughts of exploring a village that had so far brought him nothing but trouble.

Much like the previous day, the villagers of Konoha were milling about, practicing their festival dances, having costumes adjusted, making lanterns both to light the village and to light up the river for the sending of the dead. The fishermen were hauling in their early morning catches from that very same river and above the clamour and din a single hysterical voice arose.

"How can we live with ourselves like this? How can we let this happen? How can we be a

part of it! I, for one, refuse! I refuse! Not after the last time, there is no way!" A young man with unruly, mountain hermit-like hair and red smudges of some sort of paint on his cheeks was running to and fro, attempting to rile up the crowd and begging someone to listen. "How many of you have lost loved ones? What if it was your child or your lover? What if it was you? Could you stand to let it happen? Could you say that it was for the good of the village and...?" He trailed off as an older man, a leader of the village by all appearances, strode up to this naysayer with a grave expression on his aging features. Around them the distressed and saddened faces relaxed a bit and soon they all continued quietly on with their own business.

"Inuzuka, the tradition that you are trying to thwart is a very old one, one that we have all suffered under at one point or another." he cleared his throat and, from Sasuke's position pretending to browse through a series of wooden noisemakers, he could already tell what clan the man was from. The older figure had long, silky hair and pale eyes, pale robes and very similar features to Neji not to mention the songbird who had wound down the previous night for everyone. It was clear that the boy, an Inuzuka, and this family were both from the sprawling clan homes at the other end of the wide main road.

The elder drew himself up to the fullest of his considerable height and continued. "No one is exempt from the ritual, great or small. It was simply Hinata's time."

"Why?" cried the young Inuzuka defiantly. Sasuke was already putting two and two together - if they were talking about Hinata, then he was looking at the same Kiba from outside the shrine doors. Yes, their voices did seem to be the same. So much despair...Sasuke's pale fingers ran over the smooth edges of a toy thoughtfully. He could ask Kiba about Naruto if he so chose. Did he want to?

"Why Hinata? Why your clan's heiress? I _know_ you put her name in for this year! Which is it, because you favour your younger daughter or because you want to get out of the agreement to marry our clans to one another? To think that the council demanded the elitist Hyuugas to marry the unrefined Inuzukas! You know why though, don't you? You had to agree to give me Hinata so that your clan couldn't dominate our village, you power hungry - " Kiba's tirade was interrupted by an abrupt cuff to the side of the head by the head of the Hyuuga family.

Kiba was stunned, but soon narrowed his eyes in anger; he was a tough lad. "You're violating the agreement. The council will hear about this."

"If you're that concerned, you may marry Hanabi since Hinata will not be able to do so."

This statement drew a gasp from Kiba's lips. Sasuke knew that Kiba had professed his love for Hinata earlier and so his mind was abuzz with ideas; thoughts...speculations. "So it's just as much of a nightmare as I thought. You'd sacrifice your own daughter out of favouritism. Hinata is stronger than you've ever given her credit for." Without even a requisite bow, the young Inuzuka heir walked off in the direction of the woods to the south, presumably where Kakashi had been patrolling the previous night. Murmurs of disbelief trailed behind him and, silent as the wind, so did Sasuke.

As another heir, the heir to what was left of the Uchiha clan, Sasuke was very jealous of the Hyuugas, who had been given the option of marrying to keep them in check instead of being slaughtered wholesale. If only it had been such a simple task as a marriage...

"Kiba, you must stop doing this," came the meek lilt of a woman's voice as the nightingale, Hinata, appeared from the trees; by her side was a massive white dog. "All you're doing is upsetting your friends and neighbours. No one has ever escaped this once chosen." Her opalescent eyes lowered with the weight of her emotions.

Her betrothed was silent a moment, his fingers clenched into tight fists. His body was turned towards her completely. The dog whimpered at the atmosphere. "Are you happy to be going?" the words struggled out of Kiba's mouth. "You still love him, don't you? You can't forget him, you asked to go...oh god, I've been such a fool."

"That's not it a all!" she protested, though again it came out meekly and a polite tone; so different from Ino and Sakura, thought Sasuke. "I admired Naruto from afar but all he ever cared about was ending this stupid tradition. I've known since I was a child that I was promised to you but even if I'd had a choice..."

She didn't need to finish her sentence before Kiba drew her into his arms and Sasuke left them to their privacy.

Before he'd realized that Kiba wasn't alone in the thick of the trees, Sasuke had been seriously considering asking the young heir, who had apparently been Naruto's best friend once upon a time, to explain the origins of the fox spirit. All he could surmise from what he'd heard was that Naruto had once been human, though the implications of that were mind-boggling. Whatever the case, he certainly wasn't human any longer. Why did he even care? Could he still convince himself that he was investigating for the love of mystery?

And still the haunted look twisting otherwise gentle tanned features bothered Uchiha greatly. Somehow Sasuke felt as though he'd committed a horrible deed, but suspended disbelief was all that had kept him going in the world thus far. If he were to accept fault, to accept responsibility...if he were to accept the mistakes he'd made then he was certain that it would cripple him to his very core. He was desperately tired in his soul and it was only with outward focus and the pursuit of ever a new goal that allowed him to keep functioning at all. His mentality was such that if he stopped, he would die.

It seemed that solving the mystery of this village was his latest goal, and it had come just in time.

Pondering this revelation, Sasuke made his way around to the the Akimichi shop and decided to get some food while he paid off his debts. It was busy again that day but due to the time of day that he'd arrived, there were a few extra seats available. Somehow Shikamaru was there again, apparently sleeping on the counter. With the sounds of chatter and the thunk of porcelain tableware against wood, it was amazing that anyone could sleep through it at all. Sasuke moved some loose hairs away from where they obscured his almond eyes and snorted in amusement, settling himself into his spot; it had only been two days but it was already beginning to feel like a habit. At a corner table sat Kakashi and Sakura, the latter rather intimidated by the grey-haired man across from her while his gaze continued lazily out the shutters and somewhere past the trees.

After what had happened in his own village, this was the first place that had resembled anything like a home. He was still staring over at his 'teammates' when Chouji came out and set the same meal out in front of him as he'd been treated to the day before. Without even ordering, he was welcomed into the establishment like a regular. Like one of their own. Briefly looking over his shoulder at the sleeping Shikamaru, he set down some coins upon the countertop and grabbed his chopsticks.

Within the background noise of various patrons, Sasuke attempted to pick out information related to Naruto, Kiba or any of the odd goings-on of the village. He hadn't gotten very far, only managing to catch an 'Isn't it all so sad?' before Shikamaru droned out in his lazy voice:

"Interested in the Inuzuka clan, are you?"

Sasuke blinked, but did not reply.

"When you don't talk much, you have a lot of time to think and observe as I do. I noticed you fidgeting every time certain words were mentioned." He sat up a little and poured himself a cup from out of Sasuke's sake bottle. "I figure if you're going to snoop, you might as well snoop openly. It's faster that way." Fingers deeply tanned from behind out in the sun fluffed his high ponytail and yawned a bit.

Sasuke broke off a bit of grilled fish with his chopsticks and chewed slowly while he considered his next question. If someone was offering answers, he was going to take that offer. "Is Hinata Hyuuga going to die?"

The whole room got a bit quieter suddenly, as though everyone had settled in to listen to an answer that they must have already known. It was obviously a subject that was rarely voiced.

"Yes," Shikamaru replied evenly, his eyes drawing into narrow slits. "In the same manner as many before her, according to the traditions of this village."

From the corner, Kakashi was watching the exchange with considerable interest. The same Hyuuga from the day before (Neji, Sasuke recalled) chose that exact moment to drop in for lunch and whatever Nara had been meaning to say, it was effectively silenced by this uncomfortable presence. Neji came across as a very serious character and Sasuke felt that he could detect quite a temper resonating beyond those pale, proud eyes. It reminded him of himself.

The more he sat there in his worn, stained Uchiha attire, the closer he felt sleep creeping towards him. "Thank you for the meal and the information," he said, sealing the exchange with a formal bow as he slipped from his spot, and slid out between Sleepy and Serious.

In one direction was the shrine and Naruto, whose picture was to Sasuke still a few pieces short. In the other was the line of clan homes where death and heartache loomed like a storm cloud. Down the mountain lay the forest and oblivion; the option of passing Konoha by and writing it off as a mistake while up the hill was the waterfall as indicated to him by Kakashi and Sakura. Considering his options briefly, he turned on his geta and forced them upwards.

For all that had been hidden by the trees, Konoha's waterfall was massive and more to the point, loud. The Uchiha heir, who was still a young man despite the lifetimes that had stretched out in his short years, stripped out of his clothes and settled into the task of rinsing his only set of clothes. He frowned softly at the image of his family crest, warped and rippled by the water as it disappeared beneath the clouds of dust and filth released from the cloth. Birds and insects chirped in the trees and the water roared in his ears and he wondered where all the glory of his youth had gone. His clan, his symbol - a white lantern in a bright river of life, too quickly stained with red and all was lost. All of those lights had made their way down the river's currents to some other place and one, fragile though it was, had caught upon some reeds and was left behind. Konoha was merely the latest of such reeds.

Kakashi was right, that traitor. He was so achingly tired and it was only shock and anger that kept him going. One day, he thought; one day it'll sink in. It was ridiculous to even entertain the dream of sanctuary.

His eyelids were dropping as he hung his clothes over the branches of a nearby tree and, like a savage he climbed nakedly into it as he was accustomed to doing between rest stops. A hermit's life had made him wild and he fought sleep's stealthy fingers as they caressed him; a numb, barely waking state settled over him and behind his eyes he could remember what hell was like.

It had been a black night devoid of stars, with cold harsh rain drizzling down and off the roof in thick, wet ribbons. Sasuke was tucked into his futon, the covers pulled up over his face by virtue of how ridiculously cold it was. Water hammered against the walls around him and threatened to make its way inside. Sasuke had chosen to sleep in the same room as his elder brother that evening so that they might share the heat of the square fire pit generally used for cooking. The servants had laid his futon along one edge and Itachi's along another; the fire in the hearth crackled low, glowing a hot orange that was more ember than flame. Adjacent to their bedding was a little pot of water and a dipper with which to douse the fire in the morning.

And so it was that Sasuke had lain in his bed, his back much cooler than his front due to the way that he was facing. He rolled in restless sleep and bumped the edge of the pit gently, which jarred him awake in fear that he might have knocked a spark free. It hadn't, but in the faint light of the room and in between the shadows something registered in his mind: the other futon was empty. His brother was missing.

Sasuke was certain that his brother had not lately taken a lover, nor was he the overly romantic type to bother sneaking into other sleeping chambers on a night like that one. Was he elsewhere in the house?

Silently, Sasuke gathered up a lantern and tiptoed out of the room, sliding the paper-screen door shut behind him. The hallway itself was silent but a commotion sounded in the distance, like a scuffle. It should have occurred to Sasuke then that he'd broken the cardinal rule his father and Master Hatake had instilled in the Uchiha youth - never to leave his sword anywhere.

The youngest member of the clan had just padded his way down the corridor when a silhouette of dark liquid sprayed across the door befor him and a gurgled scream tore at his ears. His jaw dropped and his heart thundered...

To his left, in the shadows at the end of the hallway came a bloodied creature like something out of a nightmare, dragging itself pitifully along the floorboards like a worm. It took him a moment to process that this had been one of their loyal servants, its ruined fingers reaching out towards Sasuke in desperation.

Deep black eyes grew wide with fear and Sasuke nearly dropped his lantern as his shaking fingers clasped it tight. He croaked out words, words he couldn't recall any time after while his free hand grasped at a weapon that wasn't there. Another spray covered the sliding panels before them and as his helpless, frozen feet made to flee he realized that the blood from behind the door had behin to soak into his tabi socks. This was his parents' bedroom, he finally acknowledged, and the second that reality set in he could hear the death cries of a chorus of pitiful souls rising up over the torrents of rain. His fingers, devoid of any mode of defense, scrabbled at the door as though to pull it open but he slipped in the crimson liquid pooling at his toes, still warm as it was. His nails rent at the paper and left a fist-sized hole through which he could see a figure cloaked in black.

"Itachi, no," rasped his father, the illustrious Uchiha Fugaku, reduced to terrified death throes. Itachi...?

"Sasuke, get out of there!" called a powerful voice from somewhere, and he knew without looking that it was his teacher speaking. Unfortunately, this was a distraction that nearly cost him his life. The dull glint of a blade - for it was indeed his dear brother's katana - had com down upon his neck and sliced away at the stray hairs there, had gently split a layer of Sasuke's skin before it came to a stop. Itachi - his Itachi - had meant to remove his little brother's head.

There was no madness in the heir apparent's eyes that night, only grim ruthlessness - Sasuke could feel the urine pooling beneath his sleeping garments. In his periphery was the gruesome end of his parents, but his gaze was locked for the time being, unblinking upon the eyes of his dear Itachi.

"Come find me brother. Come find me and finish this when you're strong enough."

And his brother had gone in the next rumble of thunder and flash of lightning; when Sasuke had finished emptying his dinner all over the floor, he stumbled past the corpse of servant after servant, including the one that had reached out for him in vain. THere was not a cousin, nor a great-aunt, nor even an animal left alive in the Uchiha compound. He had never discovered the body of his teacher, but had known nothing more than that he was utterly, utterly alone.

For two days he'd lain in the filth of his surroundings, unmoving until he'd remembered the golden rule and where his katanas lay. He'd let his family down - he'd let Itachi down. If only he'd brought his weapons, he could have killed his brother with one stroke and committed suicide with another. It was his own fault that he lived in filth and shame. It was punishment.

A gentle snort roused him from his uncomfortable slumber and he jerked himself upright, nearly tumbling straight out of the tree. The hair on his calves tickled and rubbed against the bark as he drew his legs up, somehow noting at the same time that he was being prodded with a broken tree branch.

Hands moved from rubbing a blurry face to snatch at the stick presently, his gaze growing harder as he saw who was at the other end of it.

"Kakashi."

His former teacher bowed, showing off the uniformly grey crop of hair that covered his head. "My Lord."

Sasuke leapt from the tree, swords in hand as he dropped into a crouch, one hand curled in the grass to steady himself. "I've worn the blood of every single one of my family members. Don't think I won't cut you down in this state." And indeed, the fully naked form of Sasuke Uchiha straightened and readied itself for battle.

Kakashi's eyebrows raised the merest fraction. "So you've done it. You've killed your brother." He couldn't hide the surprised from his voice at this.

"I did," Sasuke spat bitterly. "Though he does not appear to have been the end game. He told me himself."

"He said that just to keep you alive," Kakashi chuckled, back in command of the situation again, even down to his lazy pose. "Your brother didn't want you to die along with him."

"What do you know? For all your toughness, you ran as soon as the nightmare began." The quaking, sickened sense of terror resonated even now in his tone. "Why did you come to bother me? I was washing my clothing."

"So I see," Kakashi said wryly as he looked over Sasuke's body. If the man had not been such a notorious womanizer, though youth might have been unnerved by the action. His voice softened a bit. "I left as per your brother's cryptic instructions, to kill a man called Danzo who'd ordered the death of your family...but I'm sure you already know who that is."

Sasuke blinked, unable to believe what his ears were hearing. "D..." he tried to utter the filthy name, failed, and tried again: "You killed him?"

"His head rests in a sack in my home, waiting for the day that you want to see it," his former master said with a sigh. Silence lingered then until, "I knew you'd kill him. He wanted that."

In the distance, birds dared to chirp again and Sasuke's face crumpled into a series of hot, angry tears for the second time in as many days. He really was too tired to continue on this way. So many realizations washed over him like a tidal wave, clogging his nose and throat, leaving his lungs at the point of bursting. His naked form sank onto its knees and then down to his elbows in the dirt, as smears of green grass stained his long, slender limbs. He thought he might be sick.

He gasped for words, unable for yet another time in his life to express what was inside of him. By his side, the half-dried kimono and Uchiha-styled adornments flapped gently on the breeze; a hand rested upon his shaking spine. Who was this man, who understood his madness?


	5. Chapter 5

"I admit I was surprised to find you still alive," Kakashi murmured, mostly to himself. "I thought for sure that you two would kill each other or that you would find some way to die soon after. Itachi thought of everything. He really was..." As the orb of his visible eye focused on Sasuke his words died off. It seemed to be in terrible taste to call the murderer, hired assassin though he may have been, a genius.

"The only reason I stayed alive thus far was so that I could kill Danzo..." he said thoughtfully. His revenge was what, complete? No, that didn't sound like it could be real. If it were real then he had no reason to continue on, did he? Here, in this clearing, he would reach for his short sword and just as his hand twitched in the slightest, the calloused fingers of his master wrapped around his wrist and stayed his hand.

"Itachi told you about it, didn't he? Just like he told me to kill Danzo if a situation ever transpired in which..."

Yes, Itachi had told him. The orders to kill off the Uchiha family had been handed to his older brother like a present from that dishonourable filth, Danzo - a council elder who had suggested the alternative would be much, much worse. Thrust, parry, parry.. and then Itachi had begged to spare his little brother, that he might die by that brother's hand; that brother whom he had held above all others. Parry, thrust, thrust again, do it, act now...with his dying breath, Itachi had told Sasuke to kill Danzo, to complete the vengeance for all that the Uchihas had been, for who their mother and father had demanded they become. And Sasuke's blade had sunk deeply into his brother's middle, jarring and scraping against the bone until the the Uchiha siblings were pressed against one another. Nose to nose, his brother had died almost affectionately.

Sasuke had lost all concept of emotion that day. More than that, he'd lost a great deal of his sanity. He'd really had no idea how find this Danzo figure and had wandered in futility, hoping for any information that he could glean about the man. All this time he'd been chasing a ghost and Itachi had known it from the start. Don't die with me, he'd been saying, all the while having left it to their old teacher to finish the job. Sasuke was a broken man who no longer knew while he was alive.

And yet somehow he knew that he had come to this beautiful village, to Naruto and to Kakashi and whatever all this insanity was for a reason. "What's left for me to do?" he croaked softly.

"You know what you need to do? You need to learn how to live again. You need to open a new chapter of your life and make some connections with real, living people. You need to settle down and find a home. It would do you good to think of something other than revenge." Dear old Master Hatake slapped his pale, naked back at this and surveyed the clearing. "And you need a change of clothes. You might have rinsed that old robe but it smells awful."

Sasuke glared, a good deal of him fighting the older man's words as he climbed up to his knees and pulled his hermit gear off of the tree branch. It was still a bit damp and, truth be told, smelled like a cesspool. He'd been wearing it when he'd killed Itachi, had been wearing it since he'd left the ruins of his family home and his eyes traced the blood stains that had ingrained themselves into the fabric. All at once, it felt as though he couldn't bear to look at it any longer, but it was with pride that he averted his eyes and handed it over to Kakashi.

"That's a good boy. There are a lot of things in this world to live for, you know. There are a lot of things to live for, even in this village." Somehow the image of Kiba and his Hinata came to mind then, and another face he didn't want to name. "But not Sakura, I've got my eye on her."

Sasuke's lips curled in disgust, though it was mostly in mockery. "You can have her and whatever her name is too, the blonde one.. Ino something?" he snorted. "Wait a minute, that's gross. She's probably half your age!"

"Nearly!" chirped an unabashed Hatake. "But with age comes skill and experience. You should see the collection of erotic artwork I've amassed in the last year alone!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Are you going to get me something to wear or not?"

"I was hoping you'd say that," replied the silver-haired man with a smile. He left Sasuke to bathe in the pool by the waterfall in the meantime.

xx

Though the water was cool and soothed his limbs, Sasuke could only think of the hot spring that he'd lately been in and the sensation of strong, masculine fingers laced within his own. It had felt so good to hold Naruto - whatever he was. Whomever he was. He didn't really want to think of an Uchiha such as himself having human needs, but as his long, lithe arms and legs pushed through the water, in his mind's eye was the fox and only the fox. His blonde one, the one who had begged him to understand that very morning and whom he'd refused outright.

It was a lonely feeling. Kakashi had warned him about being so dismissive and it had gotten him truth: devastating, glorious truth. What else was he ignoring?

From somewhere in the shadows of the trees, bright blue eyes watched the young samurai with longing; all the while the youth swam unaware, his thoughts drifting to other things - thoughts of Danzo's death, of a sort of sickened gratitude with bubbled up within him through a slick of hatred coating his soul. Inside it lay seeds of wonder and hope, and surprisingly the desire to help. These emotions fought to penetrate the barrier of his defenses, to reach the cool, pure water that his body was moving through. He had recognized the signs within Kiba earlier, knew them from himself - the man was going to either die with Hinata or go after the Hyuugas in revenge. For someone as single-minded and passionate as Inuzuka appeared to be, there were not many other options. Numb though he was at present, Sasuke had once been of a similar nature.

If he were ruined, at the very least he might be able to prevent it from happening again - which left only Naruto to discuss it with. Clearly Naruto knew what was going on, but all Sasuke was able to feel was a slow, dry ache in his chest when he thought of the fair-haired spirit.

The afternoon was spent in the village building festival stands alongside the locals in his new olive-green kimono and maroon hakama. The feeling of clothes that were not threadbare and encrusted with all manner of things was almost decadent to his skin. He had trouble relaxing enough to accept that he might be allowed comfort and thus he worked diligently, kept his cool in the presence of others rather than just shutting down or losing his temper in so far as he was able and finished the day feeling as though he'd been a helpful member of the community. It was a foreign sensation to him, the knowledge that his hands were working as one with the hands of all of the other people around him.

The end of the work day and a bit of extra pay was signalled by the song of the Hyuuga nightengale once again and as dusk settled upon the village Sasuke could see the silhouette of the Inuzuka heir, shoulders hunched as he listened to her voice. There was a kind of reverence that came over him as he watched the display: here was an emotion that had thus far escaped him; one that, despite the few years of life the couple had lived, was mature and beautiful. To Kiba, Sasuke knew, hers was a voice that tamed the savage beast within; a sound that he would never ever hear again when she died. And why, honestly, why did she have to die? This piece of the puzzle still managed to escape him.

Twilight fell upon Konoha and Sasuke padded comfortably through the single village road, working his toes against the cord of his new lacquered black geta, working the toned muscles of a full day's effort despite the refreshing dip he'd had earlier. Leaving the news of Danzo and his brother to linger a little longer in his thoughts, he'd promised Kakashi that he would visit in the morning and decided to walk along the path that he was least able to resist; the path that his feet longed to tread. Some of the yong men of the village invited him round for light gambling and drinks, but he'd never been much of a fan of flower cards or dice, nor was he in the mood for poem recitation - he'd been his family's official champion, though his brother could still show him up at every turn. One family with a fresh-faced daughter encouraged him to join them for dinner and he refused politely, torn between the joy of being invited and guilt. Feelings of self-loathing lapped at him like waves at low tide, an ever-present reminder of what lay deep in the oceans of his heart.

He was not on patrol that evening and so, as the stars amassed within the dark, velvety night sky he took a lantern out to the shrine to pray.

The twinkle of fireflies fell and rose around the vicinity of the tiny wooden structure, giving it an ethereal quality. As he approached and his lantern light brought the wooden doors and the rope into view, the young samurai could feel his heart begin to race. He should have brought an offering - he ought to go back and fetch some food..

Between his index and middle finger he plucked a coin from his pouch and set it in the collection box. His sandaled feet clunked up the steps, quiet though he tried to be. The thick straw rope hung before him and as Sasuke grasped it with both hands, he closed his eyes and called the gods...

He called for Naruto.

Whatever he had been praying for, he forgot it as he remembered the gaze of the fox and knew that even the first glimpse of the blonde shrine deity had sealed his fate. Though their acquaintance was not nearly as long as Kiba and Hinata, he knew a lost cause when he saw one. It was another tale of a samurai smitten with a beautiful youth, another tale of a human bewitched by a fox. The stubbornness within him battled it still.

He listened then, for the sound of a voice; with eyes closed he took in the night breeze and all of its earthy smells, heard the drip of water from somewhere by the hot spring and the song of frogs and crickets. No voice.

And as dark-haired Sasuke turned around he spied a face at the bottom of the steps, the whisker-like markings on both cheeks only too familar and too dear. The young man's generous mouth was pressed firmly into a line so grim and so full of hope. The cool blue gaze, illuminated by orange lantern light, tugged upon his brittle heartstrings. Somehow the boy looked ll alone, standing there with the light of the fireflies glinting off of his hair.

Neither of them seemed willing to speak, nor even to take a breath. Sasuke's mouth worked silently in words he could not say; his fingers - no, his very flesh itself was drawn like a magnet to the one that had lately held him close. If only for tonight...

"Naruto," he murmured, the hardness inside him protesting against the use of such pleading tones. Had he grown so desperate for companionship? "Naruto."

"Sasuke Uchiha," smiled the fox, though the name came out bitterly and he bowed his head. "Have you been relishing your loneliness?"

That which would leap from his tongue was swallowed down, his willingness to tell a lie and say it wasn't true - that he hadn't been lonely - was finally quenched. He descended the steps of the little altar and came to face the spirit. Naruto's eyes were so very blue an even now so trusting. He must have been a formidable man. If they had had as little time left as Kiba and the ill-fated Hinata...

"I wish I'd known you while you still lived," spoke Sasuke, his even tone belying the earnestness of his words. Hereached out and brought the back of one tanned hand to rest against his cheek, cherishing a scent that he might have just been imagining.

Naruto frowned, his thumb rubbing the smooth slope of Sasuke's nose gently. "And if I had been?"

"Then we might have been together, I would have happily wooed a youth so beautiful and full of life as yourself." Sasuke looked away, imagining the possibilities of something that would never come to pass. "I would have written poems of our love."

The 'beautiful youth' laughed, but it came out as a hiccupy snort. "And you have known of such things in these two days?" He tugged on the folds of his own burnt orange hakama.

"I know it now." His pride fought with him and Sasuke looked away, deep into the forest. The words coming out of his mouth were like fire burning the length of his throat and tongue. He couldn't bear the thought that he might blush. "I feel for you the way that they speak of it in old stories," he said to the trees.

"I wouldn't know of old stories like that," called Naruto, his own movements taking him around a corner and into the shadows beyond the lantern light. "I've only ever known and loved this village."

"Even after all it's done to you? I couldn't forgive a thing like that." Sasuke's feet were hesitant but he moved along nonetheless, following the path of the spirit as he couldn't stand the separation now that he had seen that face once again.

"Even after all I failed to do for it, you mean. There are two ways of looking at any given thing." Naruto's mouth creased into a frown again as his fingers trailed along the smooth, carved face of a fox statue. "You and I are nothing alike. You seek revenge out of pride; my only motive is to help."

"I would have killed anyone who tried to hurt you with my bare hands!" Sasuke protested. The little fox was nearly within his grasp. What would it take?

"Then it's good that we never met in those days. I would have never forgiven you for hurting those I've tried to protect."

"How are you protecting them now?" cried Sasuke, his voice rising just higher that his usual low, soft growl. "I've been trying to find out what is going on in this bizarre place! I've been trying to figure out how you died, maybe even how to save Hinata! Why? Why do you suppose I might bother with something like that?"

The confession and its implication was as much of a shock to himself as it was to his would-be lover. His goal hadn't been to solve the mystery of the town; his goal had been Naruto. Somehow his resentment of Naruto's intimacy hadn't carried through, had been ...false.

"All my living days I loved my home, even after all that has happened here. All I ever wanted was to do something great for them, to break the spell of this place - to make them acknowledge me. I'd hoped to end the cycle of death and when I couldn't, I prayed with my dying breath to O Inari Sama of this shrine, the Fox God." They'd come full circle and returned to the steps, at which point Naruto sat down at their base and rested his elbows on his knees. His clothing did not rustle as Sasuke's did when he settled into the spot next to his fair-haired companion.

Naruto smiled then; a sweet, light-filled smile as he recalled his own passing. "I asked that I be allowed to stay here, to look after his village. The god answered my prayers. I became a part of the god of this shrine, Sasuke."

The young samurai by his side blinked; he was taken aback by information that was both inspiring and appalling to him. The darker side of him was certain he would have prayed harder if he'd known he could gain power from it. It was not the proudest aspect of his personality.

"Kiba asked for your help," he replied after a moment's passing. His leg pressed along the length of Naruto's below the knee until the edges of their sandals were touching. He wasn't certain of what he'd been expecting when he'd made his spontaneous confession, but he might have guessed it would only get more complicated from there.

"Kiba doesn't want my help. He thinks his love is about to be sacrificed to the god of this

shrine, that O Inari Sama would have any use for human flesh! Either I am his enemy or I am not."

Sacrificed...? Oh god...it was just the sort of plae Sasuke had warned himself about as he'd entered the woods. How could Kakashi stand to live in a place like this? How insane was Naruto in his loyalty to it? "So then...you too were 'sacrificed'?"

"I was the last offering," agreed Naruto. "Bring your lantern." And with that, he opened the shrine doors and led them inside.

Whatever they'd bumped up against the previous night, it was horrific by lantern light. Stacked one atop another and lining each of the walls was a series of wooden boxes, names painted along the front in faded ink, some clearly older than others. There were at least fifty; that much could me seen at a glance. Had Sasuke not witnessed far worse scenes in his life he might have flinched, but as it was he kept his calm, knowing full well that he was looking at row upon row of graves.

"Over there is my father's," Naruto said, a wistful look on his face. "My mother died in childbirth. And here's mine. We had an unlucky family." He shrugged and pointed to what was indeed the newest-looking box. "If you're so convinced that you love me, that you can possibly love me, then look inside and face me."

Come to me when you're strong enough, whispered the voice of his brother in Sasuke's mind. Now the same was being asked of him by yet another ghost that dominated his thoughts, and all the while Kakashi urged him to live. To live like this? His fingertips reached for the lid, determination clenching his jaw as he lifted it only to release a small cloud of dust.

No, not dust. Ash.

Bits of bone that had undoubtedly been passed from chopstick to chopstick by loved ones lay on top. The musty, dry smell of cremated remains permeated his nose before the dust reached his eyes and throat. Here was death, staring him in the face, settling on his tongue...but old death, existing in the way that his parents must too. He hadn't stayed for their funeral, had never experienced this confrontation before now.

Though Naruto hadn't said a word, he could feel the fox growing antsy behind him, waiting for some sort of reaction. He'd ever been particularly able to express himself in words and so he chose these words:

_My love is_

_A rock a thousand men might pull_

_Sevenfold_

_Around my neck_

_Such is the gods' will..._

The rock to which he referred was of course the one which of legend was used to seal the entrance to the underworld, and thus he told his Naruto that even death could not keep them apart. They were perhaps the boldest words he would ever speak in his life.

The youth behind him was speechless, but Sasuke could feel the faintest of touches tickling the nape of his neck and behind his ears. He replaced the lid on the box wherein there lay a man whom he'd never had the pleasure of knowing. Instead, he turned to face the man he knew, with eyes as lovely as lapis lazuli and hair like cole flowers in the sun. Long, pale fingers reached into yellow tufts and cupped the back of his dear one's head, bringing their mouths together in a soft kiss. They looked to one another with understanding and Sasuke's kisses pressed to the side of Naruto's mouth, to his cheeks, to his temple as he held him close. The surging heat and strength of Naruto's body sought his, his angular body fitting naturally along the lines of his partner. Sasuke reached for him again but Naruto shook his head.

"Not here," he said.

They left their lantern on the steps of the shrine and followed the path down to the hot spring. It was Sasuke who removed his hakama first, using the over-skirt as a blanket upon which they might lay together. Naruto lay upon the maroon cloth, his features ethereal in by the light of the moon as he reached for his lover. Tanned fingers laced against the back of Sasuke's neck and tugged once again at the topknot, releasing the lily-seed black hair as he sought that proud, curved mouth, working it open as he licked at the seam. They tasted one another.

The young samurai found himself staring down at the fox from a curtain of black, his gaze not once leaving the glint of sapphire looking back at him as they kissed, most deeply touched by the wonder he found there. Naruto treated every touch as though it were a door opened into a new world, so much so that he gasped in disbelief once the belt on his own hakama had joined the pile below him and Sasuke's fingers were inside his collar, working their way over his chest. Sasuke licked gently at his skin, running the tip of his tongue up the length of his neck, worked his fingers inside the collar to loosen it, stroked the soft skin he found there until he brushed against firm nubs.

"I want you so very much," Sasuke told him, working apart the rest of the kimono until only his sleeves remained upon his body with his swords by his side;; his lean, muscled form was ghostly white in the moonlight. The olive coloured kimono slid down as well until it remained bunched at his waist. The shape of his pale thighs was open to Naruto, the patch of soft black hair obscured by his obvious arousal. He moved down to suck gently on tanned collarbones and his erection pressed against Naruto's thigh. He was happy to feel one pressing against his stomach in return, and the grip of the fox spirit's hands tightened on his side and his shoulder with each moan that Sasuke drew from his lips.

Sasuke's pale arms slipped beneath Naruto, his hands digging into the hard flesh of his shoulder blades; he was desperate to prove to himself that this was not merely a handful of sand. His kisses grew hungry and roamed the length of his lover's soft skin, over the ridges of his stomach muscles and down to his legs, hip bones, where he himself had left a gleaming trail of clear liquid in his desire for the youth. Naruto moved up and pushed Sasuke back; the man rested upon his elbows as the head of honey-coloured hair moved down his chest and stomach, lapping at the dip of his belly button and nipping at his inner thighs. There was a smile on the fox's face as he looked up from his position between Sasuke's legs, his fingers tickling the hair and sliding below to stroke the smooth skin of the heavy pouch below. With daring, the young blonde slipped his legs over the pale columns of Sasuke's and brought their erections together.

They continued to kiss in the moonlight, the burning heat between them only furthered by the gentle, certain nudges of Sasuke's hips and the erratic thrusts that answered them. They'd grown slick from sweat and heat, their skin salty and their bodies more than willing for what was to come. Sasuke slid his fingers into Naruto's mouth to wet them and a hot moan tore from his lips at the sensation of the fox's wicked tongue. It was magic, to be sure; he was bewitched.

On his knees, Naruto was dragged around to face away from his lover, his fine backside proudly thrust into the air as certain fingers parted it and a finger slid inside. He shuddered all the way to his toes and Sasuke's arousal twitched in anticipation, its heat radiating against Naruto's wrist. Forcing the issue at such an awkward angle, Naruto brought his head down and, dutifully sliding himself upon the ever growing number of fingers that reached inside him, took Sasuke's member into his mouth.

He would have never guessed the passion that Sasuke, usually so stoic, was capable of. Each thrust of even his fingers grew more forceful and his hips bucked wildly into Naruto's mouth. He gasped, he moaned; the low growl of his voice rose to a roar that was certain to have them caught if they weren't careful. His free hand pulled at tufts of blonde hair and his eyes shut tight as though he were about to break down. "I've got to have you Naruto," he said finally, "I need to be inside you right now."

And sinking onto his elbows, Naruto acquiesced. Sasuke's long limbs curled around his body like a shield, one hand guiding a rounded head into the entrance it sought. With a grit of teeth and a held breath they were one. The sensation of it left them both panting as though they'd jumped off a cliff and survived; the shock and pleasure of it had widened their eyes and as hips began their tentative movements, twin moans spilled forth from their lips.

In no time at all Sasuke's thrusts were erratic and frantic, hard enough to bruise with the force with which his hipbones slapped against Naruto's buttocks. Sweat trickled from his temples at the effort of it and formed a fine sheen upon his chest. Naruto's knees were weak with the force with which they had to resist and his knuckles were white from gripping the cloth beneath them. Eventually he sank down to the ground, his right cheek pressed against the ground. Still Sasuke remained against him, the moans landing in his ear as he brushed some hair out of his lover's eyes and kissed his shoulder. The head of Naruto's erection pressed insistently into the piles of fabric, leaving stars in front of his eyes with each delicious rub. He was almost upon a very explosive finish when suddenly Sasuke pulled out, leaving the other man's body to clench aimlessly at the air.

In a moment Sasuke had turned him onto his back and, with careful but impatient movements sheathed himself fully again, his stomach muscles curving with each heavy thrust of his hips. Naruto's splayed legs shook in the air until he wrapped them around Sasuke's back and moaned as the samurai slowed, moving with an aching slowness as his mouth returned to the tanned nipples upon his chest. One hand returned to its spot at Naruto's shoulderblade, curling the body against him and holding himself up on one elbow. The slender fingers of his free hand went down between Naruto's legs, all shyness forgotten as he stroked the boy into oblivion.

"It's going to come out," protested Naruto breathlessly, his body jolting and writhing with the effort of resisting.

"That's just what I'm counting on," rasped Sasuke in return, his hand moving faster and faster.

And just then a gurgled cry erupted from Naruto's mouth and hot liquid pooled in the palm of Sasuke's hand. Not one for formalities at such a moment, especially when he himself was so close, he licked the salty substance off with a slight grimace, curled his other arm below his lover and settled his head into the crook of Naruto's neck. He came like that a little while later, pounding so heavily into the youth that his legs had turned to jelly, Naruto's fingers dug into his back and his panting a hot mist against his lover's neck. His shoulders relaxed and the full weight of his body rested upon the one underneath him.

"You are the most handsome samurai I have ever laid eyes upon," Naruto told him some time later, looking down the bridge of his nose at Sasuke's face. "I would have accepted your formal vows of love had I been alive."

"I'd pledge them now nonetheless," murmured a very tired Sasuke with his fingers laced in Naruto's. "I wanted you the moment I laid eyes on you. I felt as though I'd been waiting for you, for this."

Naruto graced him with a smile, his lips puffy and bruised from too many kisses, and closed his eyes. A few moments later, they opened with a panicked flash and he frantically pulled Sasuke's kimono from where it was still tied awkwardly about his waist. The two lovers hid, flat against the ground beneath it and Sasuke's fingers gripped his swords in anticipation.

The drums and flutes had begun to sound again, thundering through the forest towards the shrine.


	6. Chapter 6

Sasuke could feel his heart hammering in his chest - fear, excitement, anger and dread battled for dominance in his veins. The voices were back, plotting evil and laughing callously as though they hadn't inflicted such a brutal end on the creature lying next to him in the grass.

"We won't have such a splendid meal as the last time I suppose," opined one grunting snarl of a voice. "Nothing has ever tasted so delicious!"

"It was disappointment," giggled another horribly. "I could taste it on his flesh."

"His silence did nothing to mute the screams from within," sighed another. "If only there were a way to eat him again, that desperate, pathetic fluff of a boy!"

Sasuke's knuckles were white with rage as he gripped his sword. How dare they speak of Naruto that way! He could feel his eyes turning red with anger; the blood boiling inside him; his aching muscles shaking with the need to inflict violence.

Though his movement was swift, the reflexes of the fox were faster. His fingers were wrapped around the samurai's wrist before he'd gotten even half-way out from under their makeshift blanket. A hand was on his back in seconds, both reassuring and pressuring him into staying put while his insides howled with frustration. Sasuke was not a man to stand idly by - had vowed never to stand idly by ever since that fateful night in which he'd lost his family.

"What was that?" called one of the mysterious beasts.

"I heard it too!" cried another as a grumble of agreement passed through the group. A rustle of movement followed along with the clatter of their eerie instruments as they began to search for the source of their interruption.

"I've been hasty for years and it hasn't gotten me anywhere," whispered a voice in Sasuke's ear. Instinctively pale fingers reached for those of his tanned lover, squeezing them to prevent himself from doing anything worse. "We will have our chance and then we will destroy them all, I swear it. I can't let anything happen to you."

"There's a lantern here!" cried a voice, tearing through the owner's throat like a scream. Sasuke thought he might be sick just at the sound of it; to make matters worse, he'd been caught.

Before he could even react, the fox spirit had vanished from beneath the kimono and seconds hammered by in the samurai's chest as he considered his options. The place where Naruto had been was nothing more than a warm depression in the cloth and it seemed as though a riot was starting in amongst the voices as they argued about whether to fight or flee. Though Sasuke wanted to listen to his lover's words, he was sorely tempted to give them no choice.

"Oh!" gasped the voice of the strange-childlike one. "It's you! We were just speaking of you." Guffaws of laughter erupted through the group and Sasuke peeked out. A fully dressed Naruto stood before - Sasuke shuddered at the thought - the very beings that had murdered him. He couldn't make out very much of whatever they were in the light of a single lantern and a few torchesin the distance, but he thought he could make out great swathes of cloth over each of them - and there were a considerable number indeed.

"We're back again for our payment," the voice continued, "Or should we say the Fox God's payment, since you couldn't stop us last time. And you wanted to, didn't you? You wanted to stop us so badly." The tone had grown mockingly sympathetic at this; Sasuke was beside himself with shared humiliation at these words. "You should know by now that only one thing will ever stop us and you are not it."

"I'll stop you," said Naruto bravely, his voice as steady as he could manage it. In the meantime, Sasuke's year of living on his own was coming in handy as he dressed as quickly as he could and slipped behind a tree. When he thought he could manage it, he slipped one tree closer again, trying to make out as much of the scene as possible. Silently he worked his way around the outskirts of the group, of a standoff between his love and a veritable army of flesh-eating murderers. He couldn't have admired the blond youth more at that moment.

"I'll stop you because I've vowed it and I never go back on my word. Believe it!" retorted Naruto at yet another cruel taunt from the beasts. He stood his ground, even as one of them roared in his face. It was clear that the majority were dumb, hungry, feral things with little on their mind but flesh; some, however, were not so easily fooled.

"Ah-ah, not so fast. No one ever believes you, little one," rasped another one of the speakers from the day previous. "Isn't that why you stopped speaking?"

"Indeed," spoke another, its voice seeming to grow suspicious with every word, "Speaking of which, why are you here now? Is it because of that lantern?"

Sasuke had made his way behind the crowd by then and was watching huge, hulking figures fidget about beneath deep grey cloaks. They were like menacing shadows and were packed so tightly together in front of the shrine that they formed a wall of darkness behind which the lantern light was barely visible.

"A villager left it here," insisted Naruto, the worry starting to creep into his voice. The mob shifted again, scrutinizing the fox spirit more closely as though they might pry the truth from him. Sasuke's hands gripped his katana solidly and rose the metal above his head, ready to strike.

'If it's now, it's fine,' he thought to himself, 'I don't mind if I go down as long as I take a good number of them with me.' He thought fondly of the moments that had passed just prior, of the heat and the passion that he'd shared. If it were to be his final night, he would die satisfied.

He felt it and saw it at the same time. A light spilled over his shoulders from behind, elongating his heretofore unseen shadow upon the ground in front. Claws rent the cloth over his back and fiery pain sizzled over his flesh in their wake. Though a gasp of pain escaped his throat, it only spurred on his desire for revenge. Sasuke's reflexes moved faster than his conscious mind, which was busy mourning the loss of yet another kimono even as he whirled round to face his attacker.

Thin, black eyes grew round with surprise as they took in the sight. A porcelain fox mask stared him in the face menacingly, red whiskers and beady eyes glaring down at him by torchlight from a figure that must have been seven shaku in height. A long, sinewy limb raised to strike again and Sasuke found himself ducking and rolling just as already-bloodied claws slashed at the air where his face had been. His katana rose into the air to strike just as the murmurs of the crowd exploded into a fury of roars and cries and the heat of their sheer number bore down upon him; their slathering jaws were upon him and their foul, nauseating breath was in his nostrils, clinging to his pores as he struck. The young samurai's mind was a blank as he struck forward, relying then entirely on instinct as he swung.

The lantern the creature had been holding crashed to the ground, sending sparks up from the wick and into the folds of Sasuke's hakama. Panic raced from his eyes to his brain as he realized he was on fire - and at the same time, that his sword had sunk cleanly through the robes and into the leg of his attacker, wedging itself in the bone. Sasuke was on the ground, beating the fire out of his clothing as he rolled back and forth wildly, thrashing his way out of the grasp of the devils that were upon him then. A desperate hand grabbed for his katana and slashed with all his might, sending blood misting the air above him and the fox-masked beings running. With his other hand, even as he lay on his back flailing for his life, he reached out for the leg he'd cut and pulled; his fingertips sunk into the coarse fur there and the monster howled, a hideous cry that he was sure he would never forget. A sickening, wet sound preceeded the lax in opposing force before him as the creature's leg came off. He'd done it - he'd wrenched the thing off with his bare hand.

Now that a space had cleared around him, he leapt to his feet and prepared for the next round only to find that the horde was disappearing into the forest - disappearing into the night air with their fallen comrade in tow. The weight of a single hand rested on his shoulder and in the same instant he whirled around, sword swinging and a war cry burning in his lungs.

Naruto's eyes were wide and round, the colour of dark lapis lazuli. Smoke issued from the folds of Sasuke's kimono and a crow called out in the distance as the first rays of sunlight hid just beyond the horizon. The keen edge of Sasuke's blade was resting just at the edge of the spirit's clean white cloth, his muscles having responded before he was even aware of just what he'd been about to do. His heart thumped out of its rhythm. His stomach twisted and ached in his thin stomach. His chest heaved.

A drop of blood - monster's blood - dripped from the blade and flashed crimson on the fabric, spreading as it sank in. Sasuke roared again; a bellow of pain from an anguished mind. Sanity was a nightmare to him at that moment.

"I nearly killed you," he said flatly. Had he waited for the feelings of love he felt for Naruto? Could he actually kill a ghost? The weapon fell to his side but could not be persuaded to leave his hand; it was just as well, for he would never be anything but a warrior. The knowledge that he had just battled his lover's killers - that they had escaped - that his sense of honour continued to bring him nothing but bloodshed - that he had stopped nothing at all was too much to bear. He sank to his knees, unable to do anything else at that moment. With Sasuke's gaze upon the ground, Naruto chose no words but to press the waves of dark hair against his stomach and hold it there, cradling that weary head in his hands. No tears came forth from either of them then - strange, given the way they had first met. It seemed that emotions could only properly spill forth from release for them, and at that moment it seemed as though release could never come again.

The presence holding him vanished just as Sasuke heard the voices approaching. At daybreak the patrol came running; Shikamaru and Ino burst into the clearing before the shrine and found him there, still on his knees with his katana in one hand and an animal leg in the other. "Oh my god, what happened to you?" cried Ino, her voice shrill as she knelt by his side. Her hand on his back as she inspected it reminded him of the great pain he was in; dried blood had crusted the edges of the wound and glued the tattered cloth to the area. Slowly, Sasuke wiped the sword on his overskirt and slid it back into its sheath with a sigh.

What was he supposed to say? He looked at them both tiredly, a darkness that went beyond the lily-seed black of his almond eyes radiating out from within. What _should_ he say? He considered telling them briefly, telling them of the beasts and what they were doing, but he recalled that these were also the people that had fed his Naruto to the creatures. For the right reasons or the wrong reasons, they had sacrificed their friend. Bitterness crept up within him and with it memories of his brother - with the understanding that his brother had sacrificed his dear ones for what he believed to be right and the knowledge that he might not ever be able to forgive that. He thought of Kakashi and looked to the sky, and with the reddish streaks creeping into the pale horizon he recalled that he had an appointment there.

"Sasuke?" Ino repeated, wondering if in his stupor he was able to respond or not. He threw a hand up wordlessly as though to wave them away and wandered off towards his old master's house, half burnt and with a series of giant gashes across his back. Let them think what they might - he needed time, above all else.

Having passed through a village of bewildered onlookers, he found himself at the door to the grey-haired teacher's home; the wooden doors were bright and the paper seemed to have been recently replaced. Sasuke kicked at the frame with his geta rather than knocking. A shuffling sound issued from within but when no one responded, he slid the door open and entered without waiting. "I intrude upon you," he called out as per the traditional greeting. His geta were forgotten at the door and he stepped quietly across the floorboards, searching for the noise. An iron pot still hung over the square fire pit in the central room, releasing steam as though it had been recently boiled. His stomach rumbled. "Hello," he called again.

Grimy fingers grasped at the frame of a door and he slid it back, only to raise his eyebrows at the sight. Kakashi was finishing the final stages of getting dressed, while a certain pink-haired female was still only halfway there. "I announced myself," Sasuke said slowly, his eyes roaming over the pair with mild interest.

A blush rose over Sakura's cheeks, but Kakashi remained as unabashed as ever. "You ought to have learned manners, growing up in a noble family," he chided, "Though I suppose your state of appearance excuses you."

Finally, emerald green eyes found a way to look up from the floor and the young woman let out a gasp as she looked at him. "You're hurt!"

"So it would seem," Sasuke replied, his patience clearly at an all time low. "May I speak with Kakashi for a moment?"

"Of course," she said hastily, "I'll find you something to clean up with. And breakfast is ready, would you like some breakfast? You'll want breakfast. I'll get you some breakfast," she babbled, dashing out of the room with her obi half-tied.

Sasuke briefly eyed a cushion near a writing desk as a spot to perch on, but settled on the floor as he recalled spending the night romping around the grass. Kakashi took a seat near him and glanced down at the object in his young protege's hand. "You have no idea how to stay out of those woods, do you?" he asked.

Sasuke scowled briefly before forcing his way back to a neutral expression. "Would you rather I stay here when you have such pleasant company?" He shook his head. "No, my concern is my own. I'll sleep where I like."

"But you haven't slept, have you? You were out there searching for something." Kakashi grabbed the young man's forearm and lifted it into the air to take a better look at the object Sasuke had a death grip on. "And by the looks of things, you've found something indeed."

'I found a lot of things', he thought to himself. 'Not just gore.' He set it down on the floorboards in front of them, inspecting it himself for the first time; its claws were so very long and cruelly sharp. As he bent over, Kakashi caught a proper glimpse of his back and tutted in a wry manner.

"...Or should I say it found you?"

"You're right on both counts old man," Sasuke sighed, ignoring Kakashi's indignant snort. "These are the things that have been killing at the shrine. I got one of them...part of one," he corrected reluctantly. "We've got to stop them."

Kakashi stared at him, an unreadable expression on his face. If Sasuke had had to name it, he might have said 'torn'. "You attacked them. You maimed one of the sacred foxes? Are you insane?"

"They aren't foxes!" Sasuke snatched up the leg and waved it in his teacher's face. "Look!"

"Looks like a fox's leg to me. A big, unearthly fox." Kakashi leaned back, his shoulders resting on the grid work surrounding the paper of an inner wall. "What have you done, Sasuke?"

"It's not a fox!" the younger man protested. He ran his fingers through the mess of hair he seemed to be unable to keep done up recently. "I don't know what they were, but they were not foxes!" 'I know foxes,' he told himself 'I know foxes intimately.'

"What did they look like, then?" Kakashi pressed.

"I tell you I don't know! They were wearing ...masks." The hesitation in his voice was slight, but he knew he'd been caught - the only one who ever caught hesitation in him was his master, because it had been the older man's job to train it out of him.

"Masks?"

Sasuke's head was in his hands now, recalling the sensation of Naruto holding him. His heart throbbed and his groin stirred even as he was sick with exhaustion and pain. "They were wearing fox masks. Why would they wear fox masks if they were actual foxes?"

"But they weren't actual foxes, they were spirits. Did it ever occur to you that those masks might be their real faces?"

"I don't need to listen to this. You're an idiot," he snarled; his reactions were completely unpredictable in his current state.

"Calm down, calm down. If you say so, I'll believe you. I know you, Sasuke, but not everyone here does. How do you suppose they'll react if they think you attacked their fox god?"

"This village has no life in it, they don't deserve to continue living prosperously as they do."

"I'm not sure I've ever heard you say so much in your life before," Kakashi remarked amusedly. "You speak as though you have a personal grudge against these people, though you weren't saying that yesterday when you were helping them. What's changed?"

Sasuke remained silent.

"All right then," Kakashi said after a moment. "You don't have to tell me. I'll show you what you came for and you can be on your way." His voice had a quality to it that Sasuke had always thought should be impossible for a man who had never had children - accepting but disappointed; he grimaced inwardly.

In the back left corner of the room, once the folded-up futons had been pushed aside, there was a spot in the floor where the floorboards had been cut in the shape of a square. At Kakashi's behest the young samurai slid forward on his overskirt, pushing himself along from his seated position on bent knees. Emotional nuclei began to form within him, ready to grow into a yet unnamed something upon seeing the face responsible for the destruction of his family. His master's fingers were on the lid, feeling into the secret nooks to pry it out of the floor.

And then as soon as the unveiling was about to take place, it stopped as Sakura re-entered the room. Sasuke was beside himself with rage. "I brought breakfast for everyone and something to clean your wounds with."

A hand clamped over his mouth as he was about to reply with unprecedented viciousness. "She's one of the best medicine women in the town, she'll have you right in no time," Kakashi remarked cheerfully. She blushed and the former teacher winked, obviously channeling ideas from the night prior. Nonetheless, the ill-tempered young man continued to struggle in his grasp until he was reminded that he had destroyed a gift - that being his new kimono - within twenty four hours of receiving it. He relented further when a cloth soaked in herb-infused water was applied to his back, soaking the area just enough to peel off the fabric that had stuck to it.

Sasuke alternated between grinding out screams of pain between his teeth and snatching glances at the unopened square in the floor where he now knew the head of his most dire enemy to be. "What's that smell?"

"It's a paste," explained Sakura, her delicate hands working to spread a mixture over the gashes on his back. "It's my own mixture, including winter melon root and aged mikan peel, and clove flower and powdered pearl of ox." She sighed a little and Sasuke could guess why - those ingredients were expensive, especially in an area so far from where they were commonly found. The only place he knew to buy pearl of ox was over a month's journey away.

"Thank you for your kindness," he gritted out. Manners, at least, could override his naturally grumpy disposition. Kakashi made as though to ruffle his hair and then thought better of it.

An hour or so later, Sasuke began to suspect he'd been drugged. Having washed his hands and feet in the stream round the back and eaten his fill of a begrudgingly delicious meal of mountain vegetables, sticky potato and rice, he was certain he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. He found himself drifting off in a seated position, even as he meant to go about his day. Before he knew it Kakashi had laid him out face-down on one of the futons, his head cocked to one side.

If he'd known how the owner of the home and his lover had snickered at his snoring figure, he'd surely have been mortified.

The dream began innocently enough. Weightless feet took him through the woods to that most beloved shrine, to that most beloved person of his. Soon enough, the fox spirit appeared, wordlessly expressing that he'd missed Sasuke in those sweet lapis lazuli eyes. "I'm so tired," the samurai found himself saying, "So tired when I'm anywhere but with you."

Naruto laughed at this and Sasuke found himself confused but nonetheless embraced warmly. He hugged back, basking in the warm feelings emanating from within. Butterflies as blue as the sky itself passed by around them, the sun shone bright upon the two and a gentle breeze rustled the grass at their feet. As he looked down to take in the tranquility of the scene, he noticed that the other young man was clothed in a white kimono, signifying that he was about to die or was already dead - but Sasuke already knew that, so why...?

The sun drooped in the sky suddenly and inky black eyes gazed up, a tremor of panic arising within him though he knew not why. The clearing was filled with villagers then, the faces of those he had come to know in such a short time twisted in a myriad of expressions from regret to fear; some were drenched in tears. Those in brightly coloured ceremonial garb began to drag Naruto away from him while Sasuke reached out, his body moving slowly as though he were wading through water. A flock of birds burst forth from one of the trees and into the evening sky, their wings beating first slowly, then quickly, and slowly once again. No matter what he did, it seemed impossible to move forward - he couldn't touch his fluffy blond fox for any effort he put forth, couldn't get that extra step that would take him there, to the deck-like platform surrounding the shrine. They bound him with rope and he smiled at the crowd, even as they wept openly and some hid their faces in the shoulders of others at the mere sight of him. Night fell - dropped upon them like a stone - and torches blazed around the edges of the clearing.

"I'll find a way to end this!" cried Naruto suddenly, his voice as cheerful and determined as ever even in the face of death. "I will save this village! Believe it!"

And his friends, his dear ones - all turned away because they couldn't bear to watch the horror that they knew was coming, that they'd never been able to watch in the hundreds of years that the practice had been carrying on. They murmured prayers for his soul and thanked him for his sacrifice, and in a moment he was left alone with Sasuke helpless by his side.

With a tremendous amount of will, the would-be hero pushed past the invisibile barrier between them and climbed up, ready to free him and take him far away from there - as far away as they could manage. They'd go to Saga or even Tosa if they had to, anything to stop this from -

The face changed then, transformed into the visage of his dear brother and into the same look he had seen in Itachi's dying moments; those eyes seemed even more exhausted and weighed down than he had felt and yet somehow his brother had refused to give in easily. Sasuke's fingers paused in their work for they were now untying the ropes that bound his brother. In those eyes he saw the broken bodies of his mother and father and he saw the nobleman he could have been once. Did Sasuke leave his sibling to die or else suffer him to live?

"I hate you," he whispered in his brother's ear, tears in his eyes. It occurred to him then that those words were only a fancy way of saying "I love you but you've destroyed me." Even as he said them his hands were on the ropes again, working them free as he burned with shame and hurt; there should have been anger, only anger there just as he'd known in the instant his sword had penetrated his brother's all-too mortal flesh.

A sigh emitted from Itachi's lips then, one of the softest sounds that Sasuke had ever heard - it spoke volumes of relief and release as the last of the bonds were broken and trembling fingers moved to take Itachi's hand, to pull him up and out of there. There was time to kill him later, if he couldn't somehow find a way to forgive or forget.

Except that there wasn't - time, that is - because just then the horde of masked foxes were upon them, ready to rip their bodies into pieces and Sasuke whirled around, ready to fight once again just as he always was - ready to fight against these things for what? To save his brother, his last remaining family member whom he'd killed with his own hands? Even as the thought occurred to him his hands knew the sensation of that ultimate betrayal, revenge for the betrayal he'd known.

And his hands tingled with guilt and anticipation.

And he longed for that singular drug that was Naruto to enter his veins again and offer him sanctuary.

And Itachi's fingers were on the hem of his kimono, reaching out to him, thanking him somehow and it hurt so badly that his head swam with the pressure that his heart could not handle, no he couldn't bear it any longer but he must, he had no choice - and in an instant all the masks were off.

All faces were smiling at him from behind the mask, a face that he couldn't possibly know but somehow he must know - an old man's face, half bandaged, one eye grinning smugly at him from each of the innumerable faces. Their animal-like limbs reached out for him and he took a step towards them because he knew if he didn't he'd take one back; still Itachi held him, his hand now gripping quite a bit of cloth there and thus preventing Sasuke's advance upon the beasts.

"They tell you 'Don't tell Akamaru'," whispered his brother's voice on the wind, and Sasuke turned to ask him what that meant but in that very instant he woke up.


	7. Chapter 7

**I've actually bothered to add an author's note to this one, mainly to thank everyone who has so kindly reviewed. I, like other authors, really do appreciate reviews/ criticisms/ suggestions, even though it only occurred to me the other day how to reply to such things. I've done quite a bit of research in order to write this story, such as how people used to measure height and what the money system was like. The fairytale that this story is based off of is quite short and doesn't have much detail, so I'd say it's more like a fine skeleton of the plot you see here. Feel free to PM me and/or write things to me. I'd say we have 1-2 chapters left. Once again, thank you! **

His first act as a waking man was to angrily beat the floorboards with his fist, directly following which he winced at the fire in his back muscles. Why was it that dreams conveniently ended just when he needed them to continue? The sun was setting in the evening sky and a lantern had been left on the desk to his right. Sasuke rolled onto his side and fought the too-dry sensation in his eyes again, the sensation of unshed tears. If he'd been a lesser man, he might have asked questions such as 'Why me?' or 'When is this all going to end?', but he refused to be taken in by self-pity and focused only on seeing a task through to its intended end. It was the least he could do.

The idea that he missed his brother tried to force its way to acknowledgement but was soon pummeled back into the depths by Sasuke's will not to go insane. A moment's listening around the house suggested that it was empty; furthermore, the not-a-fox's leg was missing and there was a note lying on the desk.

'Gone to bury it. You know why. Stay out of my erotic poetry collection.'

A bottle of sake sat with a single cup right next to the note - Kakashi seemed to have anticipated its necessity - and the newly-wakened house guest helped himself, his eyes finding their way easily to the exact place they wanted to be: the back left corner of the room. He gulped back the contents of the cup in one go and hurried to move the single remaining futon, determined to go through with it now. Feeling about for a lip in the wood, he pried the boarding off with little difficulty; therein lay a shapeless object in an open box beneath, wrapped in filthy cloth that had once been the colour of glazed persimmon, stained with time into a grimy brown. He recognized the material as being from his mother's collection of furoshiki; she'd often used it to wrap food and presents for Itachi when he disappeared with Father for business. It was fitting, he supposed - at the very least it was certainly a gift for Itachi.

Part of Sasuke wondered why there was no hesitation in his fingers as he tugged open the package, careful lest there be some manner of insect that had left its children inside. He supposed it was protected though, as the inside of the cedar box was as dry as a tomb and just as musty. The leathery skin of the initially visible eyelid was closed and while lips had pulled back from the teeth in a gruesome smile, he was more or less identifiable as he had been in life thanks to Kakashi's thoughtful (?) preservation. Sasuke could think of no other reason why he might have kept such a macabre souvenir if not to one day show the final remaining Uchiha, whoever that might have been.

Sasuke's mind drifted back to thoughts of his brother; he wondered briefly if Kakashi had betted on the youngest's victory or had anticipated the return of the wayward eldest son. Had their old teacher imagined himself shaking his head sadly as Itachi sought him out? These were questions which knew no answers and yet remained with him, chewing away at his nerves in tiny bites.

Pulling away the rest of the cloth, the young anti-hero felt his skin crawl: there, covering one side of the half-dessicated head was a bandage that had haunted Sasuke's dreams only moments ago. This was...Danzo? Behind the fox masks had been this sardonic, laughing visage multiplied a hundred-fold and ready to descend upon him as Itachi lay behind him. Unfortunately and perhaps overwhelmingly, Sasuke had never met the man in living life, so why did his _dreams _know this face? The very thought was terrifying.

Sasuke tried to force himself to understand as he held the unpleasant burden in his hands: he tried to say to himself, 'this is the man that ruined my family, this is the man that drove my brother to murder and in the end, drove me to murder as well', but none of it seemed to matter. Knowing the depth of his loss - and furthermore knowing its origins - did not change the nature of his situation. It was as Kakashi had said as the waterfall: he had no choice but to find life or die, to grow or waste away. He'd shed tears and it had come to nothing; he'd shed blood and it had come to nothing again; then he'd shed his resentment in the face of a spirit who understood him implicitly and he had known peace in those moments. There really was no other option, especially when all Naruto seemed to know was forgiveness and he was a man in great need of it.

After that the head was easily replaced back in its hiding place and Sasuke vowed to think no more on the subject. Whatever he ought to be feeling, he had greater problems at hand - namely, access to food (he'd gotten used to eating again recently and was relishing the habit) and creating a strategy with which to defeat the fox-masked devils that had ruined his back. Sliding open the paper doors to Kakashi's bedroom, he tripped and very nearly threw the lantern he'd collected from the desk - a close call as he'd nearly lit the whole place on fire with his very first step. Lying in the doorway, apparently so that he wouldn't miss it, lay a folded yukata for the festival season - somehow it had slipped his mind that there were also celebrations going on, beginning in an hour or two and climaxing the following night with the sombre occasion of Hinata's passing.

Given that the maroon and olive kimono was already a mess, he slipped into the light- weight indigo fabric and started as something clattered to the floor; his long, calloused fingers reached down and wrapped around it, a faint smile touching the corners of his lips. It was an uchiwa, painted red and white like his family's traditional symbol - a touching gesture, he thought as he turned it about in his hands and ran his fingertips over the bamboo spines. Written in beautiful calligraphy along the handle was his very own name, penned in women's letters by his mother's hand. "Kakashi," he said softly to himself, unsure of what he might say to the man. Perhaps there were other things in the house, other things from his past life...?

A knock came upon the door then and Sasuke was torn from his reminscences long enough to open it. There on the porch stood Ino and Shikamaru, the very two he'd coldly dismissed that morning. He sighed - he was trying to start a new life, but that did not suddenly make him friendly. "Kakashi isn't here - " he began, cut off mid-sentence by a hand over his mouth. He blinked, not sure if he should believe his own eyes. Shikamaru shook his head at Ino, who was grinning proudly at having shut up the great and mysterious visitor to their town.

"He told us where to find you," she explained as her companion gave a little yawn. "We're supposed to take you to the dance whether you like it or not."

Sasuke found himself raising an eyebrow, his eyes traveling over to Shikamaru in search of explanation. The other young man shrugged, his own yukata a fetching aloewood colour against Ino's tree peony. "If you don't agree to come, we're to kidnap you and carry you off with us. We brought reinforcements in case you decide not to listen like this morning." He glowered at the outsider, obviously not as quick to forget the incident as Sasuke would have liked.

"Let me snuff out the lantern," he sighed after some consideration, running his hands through his hair as he returned to the house. It was quite a foreign situation to him, trying to understand that he owed someone an explanation. 'Later,' he decided, hanging onto his fan in his left hand. In the moonlight, he could see his swords sitting by the edge of the futon he'd left laid out along the floor. To his left, two expectant faces glowed in the lantern-light from the porch and he could hear music in the distance - for once cheerful, normal, _human_ music. Shaking his head, he went back into the room, grabbed something to tie up his hair with and shut the bedroom door. The katana wouldn't have sat well on his yukata anyway.

Soon enough the party of three came across Chouji, apparently one of the reinforcements who'd meant to be right behind them but who had gotten distracted by the scent of festival food he'd caught wind of along the way. With reluctance their stout friend gave each of them a grilled river fish on a bamboo skewer and as Sasuke bit into the crispy, silvery skin he began to feel as though he were in another world, one where the carefree days of his childhood and the culmination of his adult life thus far could coexist. All of his bleak memories faded away to some place beyond the reach of the strings of coloured lanterns that lit the way through the dark of the forest, beaten back by the deep, rich sound of drums calling the villagers to the center of Konoha. With quiet wonder he took in the bright colours and loud sounds, the smell of smoke from bonfires and grilled fish and roasting chestnuts; he allowed himself to acknowledge that the things he had once known - traditions, merriment - still existed even when he wasn't in the same frame of mind.

As they grew nearer their group first doubled and then tripled in size, first with the approach of Sakura and the nightingale Hinata, the other Hyuuga boy (Neji, wasn't it? He could never remember) trailing along cautiously, misgivings shadowing his features. Neji's teammates followed behind: Lee could barely seem to keep his giant eyebrows pointed anywhere but at Sasuke's pink-haired nurse, while a serious-faced girl was talking quietly to someone with eyes as black as a beetle's shell. Sasuke was certain he'd never seen the man before but seemed to overhear the name 'Shino' from time to time.

From the family compounds came a stream of people, many of them Hyuugas and the others seemingly the Inuzuka, each of them sporting their clan's traditional eye colour and face paint respectively. Sadly, even at a time of celebration they couldn't seem to put their differences aside and actually speak to one another - or so Sasuke thought until he saw a huge white dog burst from their groups of two and three followed by the Inuzuka heir, Kiba. Just as expected, he headed straight for Hinata's side and proceeded to make the shy girl blush into oblivion while Neji scowled disapprovingly. All in all they were eleven, tied to one another by some invisible thread that Sasuke couldn't name; he might have said they were ten and excluded himself from their number but even a hermit such as himself couldn't deny the air which surrounded them as they reached the village center.

In another breath he could have said they ought to have been twelve, and with that thought he swore he could hear Naruto's voice on the wind.

Laughter and excited chatter rose above the thrumming, above the tinkling of bells and the strumming of shamisen. Here and there little arguments broke out over trivial matters and were forgotten just as quickly. Children happy to be up past their bedtime ran circles around the feet of their parents and grandparents and the village youth wasted no time in adding romance to the atmosphere. Sasuke observed the spectacle in his typical silent manner, grunted here and there when asked if he was having a good time and found himself looking to the treetops every so often, hoping to catch a glimpse of blue eyes. Lee was babbling earnestly at Sakura here while Kakashi looked on in amusement; there, Neji was threatening a completely unphased Kiba for touching his cousin in a manner unbecoming a gentleman; Shino and the girl he'd discovered was called Tenten were hesitantly agreeing to watch some ridiculous stunt that Chouji's helper, Konohamaru was offering to perform. The village was alive with life in its purest form, an infectious vitality that pulsed within its people.

The more the merrier, it seemed to say - so why couldn't the majority have such peace and happiness without the sacrifice of a few? Sasuke felt his fists clench at his side; there was a person missing from the group that he felt the absence of acutely, a presence that would have made the night whole for him.

An arm slipped through his just then and he looked over to see a different blonde, Ino, smiling over at him. His face soured until he saw that her other arm was hooked into Shikamaru's, which left him with little option but to be puzzled. "I saw you looking like you were going to bolt," she teased. "You're not getting away from us that easily."

Sasuke was actually in a position where he didn't know what to say: even in his own hometown he wasn't sure that he'd ever felt quite so welcomed by a group of people that weren't his family and they knew next to nothing about him - moreover they'd ceased asking questions about it, which seemed to suggest that they didn't actually care about his lineage or his sins. He'd never known anything like it. No wonder Kakashi had decided to alight in Konoha.

Chouji appeared just then with more food in his arms, which he began to pass out to everyone. Sasuke was about to protest that he honestly couldn't manage another bite after that fish, but was convinced to try it when he heard other people exclaiming in delight over whatever had been placed in his hands. He gazed down at it warily, noting that it appeared to be a red fruit of some type. "I hate sweet things," he began, his tongue already recoiling in horror as he brought it to his mouth.

"It's called a tomato," Shikamaru said just as he took a bite. Sparks of wet fire danced along his tongue and the foul-tempered Sasuke was left undone; it was the single most delicious food he'd ever tasted. His eyes widened and he looked around, wondering if everyone else was experiencing the same sensations he was - apart from a few well-meaning exclamations of 'Mmm! Delicious!' it seemed to touch everyone in more or less an average manner. He quickly swallowed the fresh, red pulp and squashed his sense of wonderment - too late, it seemed. Tomatoes; he'd remember the word well from now on.

"I'm glad you like it," called Tenten from her perch on one of the massive logs people were using as benches. Sasuke couldn't help but be surprised at every turn in this village - it didn't matter if people were strangers or family, everyone was part of the community. "These two silent types have only recently started to grow the crops. They were a gift from some travelling merchants from across the sea in the central country." She indicated Shikamaru and Shino with her hands; so that was what Shikamaru was meant to have been doing the other day! Sasuke felt as though he ought to thank them.

"Here, have mine," came another voice, to which Sasuke was forced to swivel his head to the right. His eyes widened almost imperceptibly as he realized he was looking at the Inuzuka heir. Up until then he'd only spied at the other young man from afar, but seeing the wild grin on his face told him that no matter how many similarities their circumstances might have, Kiba was a far cry from him - Sasuke would never have found it in himself to be kind to a stranger when he himself was going through so much. He wasn't sure he'd ever been so kind in any given situation, actually.

"It doesn't feel right eating them somehow," Kiba said as he took an uninvited seat next to their village guest. His casual, open manner reminded Sasuke very much of the fox he was longing to see again even at that moment. After a thoughtful pause, tanned fingers - again, reminding him of Naruto - reached out to touch the edges of the Uchiha fan in Sasuke's lap. "It's weird having you here, you know?" he sighed, "Whoever you are. On the eve of... of..." And here he trailed off. "The village gives and it takes away, that much is obvious. I feel bound by the red strings of fate so much right now it's strangling me."

Sasuke wasn't really sure if Kiba was speaking to him at that point or to the group in general or even just to himself. Surely he hadn't even greeted the fuzzy-headed boy next to him yet...? He certainly wasn't sure how to reply, only that he knew the feeling. A hesitant nod sufficed to encourage Inuzuka to continue.

"It makes me want to laugh, this thing with the tomatoes. Naruto absolutely hated them, and here you are four years after his death, his polar opposite and somehow I feel as though you're supposed to replace him." He couldn't mask the bitterness in his voice at that point and the group bristled around them, all ears listening raptly to what they didn't want to hear. "He was my best friend."

Sasuke felt himself nod again - he knew this particular detail, but wasn't ready to share that with anyone. There was certainly a reason why Naruto wasn't appearing to any of them and he would not be brash now; there was too much at risk. "What kind of man was Naruto?" he asked quietly.

"He was wonderful," whispered Hinata from her place by Kiba's side. It was Inuzuka's turn to bristle then. "A-a wonderful friend," she clarified quickly. Murmurs of agreement rose among the party.

"He was the most cheerful person our village has ever known," added Ino with a smile.

"And the loudest," grumbled Shikamaru, though he too had a wistful look to his features.

"And the most shameless," added Neji haughtily "Though that title goes to Inuzuka these days." Kiba grinned, apparently taking it as a compliment.

Sasuke thought it was important that he hear these details about his dear spirit; he'd wanted so badly to have known Naruto in real life and here were the only ones who could tell him about it. It was comforting to know that the bright-faced fox deity was still missed by his friends, too, as he still hadn't forgiven them for sending the youth to his untimely death.

"We're glad you're here, though," Chouji concluded after some time. "Even if you are more secrets than stories." The robust man winked at Ino and Shikamaru, who had apparently told him about the incident that morning. Sasuke winced inwardly.

"Oh! That's my cue," whispered Hinata shyly as a booming drumroll sounded. The villagers were dragged from whatever was occupying their thoughts to cheer as their singer took her position in the center of the village atop a small, box-shaped platform. A heavily-costumed flautist, a woman with a shamisen and a shirtless, broad-armed drummer welcomed her and called for everyone to take their places.

Every able-bodied person in Konoha formed a circle pointing clockwise, their hands and feet positioned to begin an offer of welcoming and appreciation to the spirits of the dead. Given the amount of people he had to dance for, Sasuke was not as reluctant as he might have been otherwise. As the drum signalled the sound of the song and the surprisingly joyful voice of Hinata rang through the air, he watched carefully and moved his hands along with the locals in sweeping motions, tapping the toes and heels of his wooden sandals where necessary. As expected, the gestures differed slightly from those in his hometown and his dark eyes took in the movements of the village elders in particular, knowing that they had the most practice. As an Uchiha, he had inherited the ability to copy others quickly and flawlessly and he made use of it there; in no time the hand with his family uchiwa in it was cutting deep, strong strokes through the air, in towards himself and out towards the sky. Here and there the residents of Konoha cried out as one, everything wordless shouts of encouragement and joy to 'Hear, hear!' in response to the haunting voice of their nightingale. As the songs wore on clapping replaced some of the movements and the entire crowd was abuzz with energy. The drummer, beating his sticks fiercely against the giant taiko, were whirling in the air between thrums, stirring the crowd into a frenzy. The swings and turns of the villagers became more and more pronounced; more passionate - Sasuke found himself wishing that he might lose himself as easily as they, but even as he reflected on this a flash of blue caught the corner of his eye, just beyond the light of torches surrounding the circle.

Sure enough, the fluffy blond head of the fox appeared and Sasuke could see the youth grinning ferally at him, his arms and legs following the movements of the rest of the group as freely and easily as though he were still among them. 'Naruto', mouthed Sasuke, one side of his vision firmly focused on seeing whether the people around him had noticed or not. The fox spirit entered the circle and began to dance right alongside the foreigner in their midst. Again, dark eyes whirled round to see if anyone had noticed this yet but there were no signs that anyone could see Naruto but himself. An even bigger grin spread wide across the handsome, tanned face, obscuring the whisker-like marks upon his cheeks. "You're right, only you know that I'm here," came a loud, cheerful reply to an unasked question. "Well, that's not quite true I guess. There's one other."

Sasuke turned his head to see Naruto waving at Kakashi, who waved back as though it were the most normal thing in the world. To the eyes of others he might have been waving at his old student, but the eyebrow that rose when Naruto stroked Sasuke's pale, swaying hand suggested otherwise. There was a slight collision with the person in front of Uchiha as he stumbled, taken aback by such an overt gesture, though he quickly resumed his place and rejoined the rhythm of the song. He gave an indignant huff as Naruto sheepishly apologized and resumed the dance as well; he looked very dashing in a yukata nearly the same colour as his eyes; to his admirer they were two pools of clear blue water and the thought of diving freely into their depths was cool and refreshing on such a hot summer night.

Recalling that Naruto could read his mind before, he focused on a question: Why only Kakashi and I?...And why didn't you tell me you'd met him? His face reverted to its neutral state of 'scowl' and earned him an odd look or two from those not completely enraptured by their surroundings.

Naruto blushed again and Sasuke was ready to forgive him in a moment, which he silently cursed himself for, then cursed again at the thought that it had probably been overheard by the shrine creature anyway. "Well," began the deep yet boyish voice, "I promised everyone that they would not see or hear from Uzumaki Naruto again until I had figured out a way to stop the sacrifices." He sighed, and then "That's why I didn't respond to Kiba. The truth is that I can't - and I didn't want you to talk to him for me. What good would that do? He's always been my best friend and I can't do anything personally to stop his pain."

Why can't you, Sasuke wondered. The fox grimaced and met the samurai's gaze with determination in his eyes. "Because you're the key to all of this. You're the one who has to save Hinata."

'You think I can take down all of those masked beasts?' Is that what his dream had been about? He was supposed to attack them while he stood over their dinner? Sasuke shook his head slightly, wondering when the dance would end - his back was still a painful mess and his muscles were aching, further reason to doubt the dream's strategy.

Naruto shook his head as well, saying, "No, not you, but you know how to defeat them. You've heard it from them, but I can't tell you what the answer is. I wish I could, but when they killed me they sealed my lips on that subject. Not even O-Inari-Sama can remove whatever spell was cast upon me there, for He does not have the strength he once did."

Sasuke frowned at this and took an early leave from the dancing, settling himself down upon a log, though the final song ended less than a minute following. Naruto perched in the grass in front of him, looking up into his eyes with wistfulness upon his features as his old friends came to sit around their new samurai, much like they'd once sat around their loud-mouthed friend. "Their devotion is low these days as they lose their loved ones to the shrine - desperation and fear does not give a god power, it gives a demon power. Pure-hearted worship is what He needs, but the demons have created a trap which will eventually kill Him or cause Him to become vengeful and blinded by bitterness."

A creeping horror overwhelmed the samurai's insides, though his face remained calm and composed. _He_ was the key to all of this? He racked his brain for the answer, trying to recall what those terrible, grating voices had been saying, but their talk of destroying Naruto had blinded him to whatever else they might have said. 'I can't remember,' he whispered in his mind, his forehead resting on the palms of his hands.

"Are you okay?" asked Sakura soothingly. Kakashi stood by her side, the lower half of his face obscured by an uchiwa, though amusement danced in his eyes. The others were still laughing and chatting with one another but the scene had quieted down considerably with the diminishing of their energy. Children up past their bedtime were yawning and tugging on the folds of their parents' yukatas.

"I'm fine," Sasuke ground out, trying to ignore the way his head had started pounding since he'd begun to beat it into giving up its secrets. Inside his head was not a comfortable place for him to be in general, since picking through his memories often brought along unbidden and entirely unpleasant ones along too. With a bit of effort and a telling grunt from his teacher, his voice softened and he added, "I'm fine, really. My back is... I think I'll go for a walk." Not the most coherent, but he still couldn't bring himself to voice weakness.

"Do you want anyone to go with you?" asked Chouji, ever willing to help. Shikamaru and Ino murmured similar offers, but Uchiha brushed them off.

"Thank you for your kindness," he mumbled, feeling his entire body physically resist the expression of gratitude that he was so unused to, "But I'll be fine on my own."

If he'd once wondered why the people of Konoha were so adamant about being nice to him, it occurred to him now that it was simply the way they were. No matter who visited them or what their history was, they were given the benefit of the doubt and welcomed in - Naruto himself was an obvious product of this community, he thought as his sandals moved through the first dew of the evening. The air was still warm and heavy as he wove through the trees, this time moving in a different direction from the shrine. Whatever he was supposed to do to save Hinata, he had very little time left. The next evening would bring the send-off of lanterns and the demise of their beloved singer.

Sasuke settled in the long, soft grasses by the base of the waterfall. He lay down and stared up at the sky, at the silvery moon and its cloak of stars spreading out into nothingness. He thought of the village, of his home and the festivals he had once known and how different they were; how exactly the same they were. He thought of the rationality of keeping prosperity and peace at the expense of a few lives and at the expense of their ability to forgive themselves. Surely Kiba was not the first among them to crack as he was sure to do when Hinata was gone? How many broken hearts had been swept away on the flow of time in this place? He sighed and rolled onto his side, where blue eyes caught him unaware.

He was almost too used to being surprised in that manner by now; the initial jump found him sighing wearily and rolling onto his front, face folded across his folded arms. "You could greet a person normally, idiot."

"You could have waited for me, jerk! I was trying to catch up to you after I said good bye to Kakashi. You made me run all the way through the forest to find you!" Naruto whined. He chose the opposite position, lying on his back with his fingers laced behind his head.

"Really?" Sasuke asked sceptically, his eyebrow twitching.

"No, not really," the other fellow admitted with a laugh. "I did say good bye to Kakashi though. He loves you like his own son, you know."

Sasuke's mess of a heart, just barely beginning the stages of healing, gave a pang of sorrow at that. He supposed in a way he thought of the older man as family too, though more as an older brother or an uncle than a father. Technically, Kakashi had killed for the sake of the Uchiha siblings; their bond was indeed probably deeper than he had known with his real father. "I see," he croaked softly.

"That's why he can see me," Naruto explained, "Because his loyalty above all is to the Uchiha family, not to Konoha. He just likes it here."

"He certainly likes Sakura, anyway," snorted Sasuke, thinking of the display he'd come across that morning. Naruto sat up and balled his fists in mock frustration, shaking them at the sky.

"I was going to marry that girl!"

Sasuke sat up at that. "You were engaged to her?" She hadn't seemed as heartbroken as Kiba over the loss of Naruto, though he supposed people expressed their emotions differently - or hid them, as the case may be.

"No, she wouldn't give me the time of day - but I would have! ...Eventually." the blond boy finished lamely.

"I wasn't aware that I had competition to fear from anyone," Sasuke said, his voice wry and low. Naruto surely wanted him for more reasons than he was some sort of alleged key, didn't he...?

Naruto jumped up from his spot and shoved Sasuke back down into the grass. He sat on the pale, yukata-wrapped chest and insisted with all his might that the wanderer had interested him in ways completely unrelated to solving the issue of the shrine sacrifices. "I told you I would have let you court me officially! I've got selfish reasons for liking you, too!"

Sasuke's breathing was significantly more difficult under the weight of his young man, a feat he wouldn't have thought possible without a physical body; eventually he was forced to relent, to trust that Naruto was his alone. He was rewarded for it with a shower of light, sloppy kisses.

They made love again that night in a cool stream of water cascading down from the waterfall by the light of the moon. Later, when they were both too tired and sore to move, Naruto snored gently by the samurai's side, his drying hair rested on the outstretched arm of his lover. Sasuke lay wide awake, wrapped once again in his yukata as the water droplets evaporated from his skin. He thought of his swords and how they'd never before left his side in the days that had followed his parents' death. He thought of Kakashi and the villagers; of Hinata and Kiba; of the inevitable memories of his brother's death and of his desire to right his own wrongs; he thought of how much he wanted to save the village and most of all, save Naruto. He thought of how much he would have given for a normal, easy life.

When the sun arose the next morning, Sasuke was able to bid Naruto a proper goodbye for the first time and he was relieved to have passed the night in peace, far away from the clutches of monsters. For all of his thinking, probing and wondering, though, his mind was still ablank of solutions and he had no idea what he was going to do after the sun settled that day. Nonetheless, he had resolved to help and thus headed back into the village, prepared to face any eventuality.


	8. Chapter 8

**Hello readers! Thank you for sticking through me and providing me with such kind reviews. After this chapter there should be one left to go; for those of you that may be panicking about the ending - please stick with me. I promise not to let you down! **

The uneven wear of Sasuke's wooden geta clomped familiarly over the packed ground through the village, his feet already so well acquainted that he didn't need to look about much for branches and rocks. As he made his way through the bamboo thickets which sprung up here and there throughout the forest a sound to his far left gave him pause and he stilled immediately, reaching out by habit for the hilt of his katana and finding nothing. A twinge of panic alighted within him then, though he had no time to debate his next course of action as at that moment two things occurred simultaneously:

The sound transpired to be voices - human voices. He knew these voices.

A hand slipped casually into his and nearly made him jump out of his skin from shock. As his gaze whirled to meet the intruder he found himself face to face with blue eyes, soft skin with whiskered cheeks and a mischievous smile he'd left only moments before. "I thought you had to go for the day?" he scolded quietly. The voices in the brush continued, muffled though they were. "How am I supposed to figure this out with you around to distract me?" How was he supposed to talk to anyone, really?

"I wouldn't let you do this on your own," Naruto reassured him, his nose crinkling as he thought of something bad. "I wish I could help more, you know that. My lips are literally sealed about it though. I hope I can give you comfort and strength at least."

Sasuke snorted softly in response. His fingers rebelliously tightened around the warm grasp of the fox spirit, wondering at the number of things he'd grown used to over the past few days.

"Hinata, please! We can run away from here, we can be together forever! Just go with me, now!" What was now unmistakably Kiba's voice arose from the bushes, his pitch and volume rising right along with his sense of desperation. Hinata's replies were incoherent due to her small, shy voice but it was clear that she was trying to let him down gently. Sasuke frowned; the situation was more than just wrong, it was ghastly. Had Kiba begged Naruto not to say good bye when he'd left? Had Naruto considered running away, or given himself completely up to the horror that had been his end? Had he done it for the good of the village, the same way that Hinata seemed to be insisting on doing as though it were her right to die for the sake of and to the inevitable destruction of the man she loved? Sasuke hadn't been the only one lying in the arms of a lover the night before, that much was clear. Why then, was she able to go to her death with such determination? Why had Naruto made it impossible for them to do this together, as they ought to have done?

'If you'd only waited four years,' the youth cursed inwardly, 'I would have known you. I would have been with you and we would have solved this.'

"Sometimes we make terrible sacrifices for the people we love and for those we have yet to meet," murmured the fox, his fists balled up in determination. "I know you want to say it was stupid, but it was mine to do! I won't say I regret it, I won't say there was another path to take because there wasn't any other path. I did what I did whether anyone else was going to agree with me or not." The burst of anger that had issued from the generally cheerful, once again kimono-clad young man next to him took Sasuke aback.

It was as though the words might have issued forth from his own hardened mouth, had his jaw not been drawn tightly by his own struggle to accept the circumstances that had lead him to that place - to that clearing, to that shrine, to that village, to the embrace of someone who had slipped through his grasp before they'd ever had the chance to meet. Even so, he was the happiest he'd been in a great, long while for the opportunity to feel the way he did. He nodded hesitantly, as though at once all his questions and his bitterness at what Inuzuka and his Hyuuga were experiencing were answered. "We all choose our own paths," he agreed softly.

"Hinata!" Kiba's voice reached his ears just as a body crashed into him, throwing him onto his tailbone in the dirt. He looked up in a daze, shaking his head as he registered the silvery eyes peering into his. Her limbs, still covered in last night's yukata, were sprawled all over him just as they'd gone down together. It seemed as though she'd gone careening out of the woods and Sasuke had merely been in the way, though the force with which she'd struck him was startling. The nightingale's eyes were glistening with emotion, though her cheeks were dry.

"I'm sorry," she squeaked in the tiniest, saddest voice that the wandering samurai had ever heard in his life. He blinked at her, then turned his dark eyes upon the disbelieving stare of one Kiba Inuzuka, who had stopped just in time to prevent his entering the pile-up. The nightingale, with her dark hair and eyes as pale as dawn, climbed to her feet and discreetly wiped at her eyes with her yukata sleeves while Kiba continued to stare; for his part, Sasuke stayed where he was - he wasn't sure that he could get up without grimacing as he had fallen flat onto the gashes he still needed to finish healing.

"Well, this is..." Kiba began quietly, his tanned hand reaching out for calloused warrior's fingers, fingers that had once been smooth and fine - they'd been equals, once, people cut from the same sort of cloth, the children of lords. And now? Now Sasuke lay on his back in the dirt and accepted a hand he would have once ignored in misplaced rage. And those tan hands? So much like Naruto's, so much like the hands that he had allowed free reign over his body earlier that evening. Salvation came in many forms, it seemed. "What are you doing here?"

"I want to save you two," he proposed quietly upon brushing the dust from his clothes. "My tale is similar to yours, though I've already lost the future I once had. It's not yet too late for you." In the edges of his vision he could see the pale yellow cream of his sweet fox's fuzzy crop of hair, could see the bright blue of the gaze that saw right through him.

Kiba's face scrunched into a mixture of feelings; the fear and hurt which he battled with at every moment, hope and mistrust, confusion and reluctance. "What do you mean?" By his side, Hinata's hands twisted at the hem of her clothing and her eyes darted back and forth - she was torn between whether or not to bolt.

"I mean to say I share your feeling and I sympathize." Sasuke was naked here, the sword that represented his only sense of security no longer by his side and his anguish muted from rage to acceptance; he was stripped of his best defences and all he could think of in order to make himself do this, now, was a layered image in his mind. Below the moon, below the waterfall the night before he had drank in clear water from fluted lips and lost himself in the body shivering in his arms - the intensity of the emotion brought forth from the events had stolen his breath from his lips; yet over and upon that cherished thought was the ghost of recent memory, the dust which had coated his lips and throat as he'd stared into the ashes of his lover. "I will do anything to stop you from losing Hinata. I promise you that somehow, some way, she will live through this."

"How the hell can you promise something like that, you idiot stranger?" Kiba's temper flared and he lashed out towards a nearby tree, aiming a kick at it that only served to scuff the wood of his sandals. It was clear that hope had risen with the sound of those words, and with it the refusal to believe that it could be so. His dark eyes turned to Hinata, the resolve and desperation burning through him as he tried to make a decision.

"No," Hinata replied quietly, producing an anguished cry from her lover.

"Yes, please - Hinata!" begged Kiba.

"Yes," insisted Sasuke more forcefully. He looked towards Naruto, knowing that no one else could see him though he could feel the warm hand that clapped down on his shoulder. "I will end this; I am here to end this. For Naruto."

Two jaws dropped in response: one much farther than the others. Sasuke wondered how the boy managed not to catch insects with the space he created. "What? Naruto? How...?"

Sasuke looked over his shoulder again and was graced with a soft smile. "Just listen to him Kiba," the spirit laughed. It was clear that the words were wasted on ears that could not hear him and Uchiha shook his head. "Naruto seems to think I'm going to help him finish what he started. Meet me in the village this afternoon after lunch, when the hour of the ram turns to the hour of the monkey. I will tell you my plan then," he insisted, finally realizing that the painful prodding at his back was partially caused by the uchiwa tucked into his yukata belt. He pulled it out and began to fan himself, giving a polite bow as he turned away.

Mid-stride he paused and turned back towards them, the fox spirit stopping curiously as well. "By the way, you were right - Naruto really was a wonderful person."

Sasuke didn't even bother to knock as he entered the master's home; his only improvement on the previous day's events was not to try and enter the bedroom. He needn't have worried though, as he came upon Kakashi sitting lazily at a low table in the centre of the room with his breakfast sat out before him. "Ah," called the older man without looking up. "I was wondering when you'd turn up. And I see you've brought a guest with you."

Naruto, for the first day since they'd met, was staying by Sasuke's side. He gave a polite bow and had somehow even removed his footwear. The samurai merely huffed and took a seat near him without waiting to be invited, leaving the fox to scramble to catch up with him. "That's no way to treat a god!" protested the spirit.

"You're only half-god, or something like that," mumbled Sasuke, his eyes roaming over the scrolls that Kakashi was leering at before he dismissed it with a slightly green tint to his face. "That's disgusting, you old scarecrow."

"It's a beautiful display of human nature, you silly boy," yawned the silvery-haired teacher. For all of his reluctance to move, Kakashi's wiry muscles gave away a hint of the violence he was actually capable of. "I swear you should have been a monk."

"I'm not celibate you fool," Sasuke shot back. Well, he wasn't - not if sleeping with ghosts counted.

"I meant because you'd fit right in with the old stories of monks and acolytes and all of their 'male colours'." This came with a lecherously arched eyebrow and a crooked grin. Sasuke's lips drew into a straight line, though a blush had the grace to enter his cheeks at the implication that he was a tried-and-true lover of men. Though most samurai had homosexual experiences, they also married and had children - a few, on the other hand...

"What?" Sakura asked as she came in through the door. Her hair was still a bit of a mess and she was carrying a tray of food which she had meant for herself. Upon seeing Sasuke though, her eyes lit up a little and she passed it over to him with a warm greeting. She even lifted the lid off of his soup bowl for him.

"I told you Sasuke was more likely to go for Nara than Yamanaka," Kakashi said, shamelessly patting her on the behind. "You had nothing to fear about losing that little competition with her. For every woman Sasuke took to his bed, nothing left him with the same glow he had after he'd lain with a man. He was always better at his studies the next morning on nights like those." Kakashi reminsced fondly. Sakura turned a bit red then and wandered back into the other room to set out a tray for herself, muttering furiously under her breath. Turning his attention back to his protege he added, "Though it seems your sights were set elsewhere in this village all along."

"I offer thanks for this food," Sasuke said with a glower, his chopsticks already reaching to shovel rice in as he spoke. Naruto looked on hungrily and Sasuke sighed in defeat, setting the bowl back down and sliding it across to the youth.

"I accept your offering," grinned the fox as he began to scoop the sticky white grains into his mouth with his fingers. Kakashi looked on, infinitely amused.

"I've never seen Sasuke be so charitable before," he mused quietly. "You must be good in bed."

"What?" Sakura repeated as she re-entered the room, glancing worriedly back and forth between master and student. "...Bed?"

"Why don't you just marry this woman already?" grumbled Sasuke, already itching to leave again. Unfortunately, he had questions to be answered and Kakashi was the best starting point that he'd thought of thus far.

"I would if that Lee child wouldn't stop punching me every time I suggest it," the other man deadpanned. Naruto snorted.

"When I was a teenager I had a crush on Sakura as well," said the fox with a wistful smile, licking rice off the edges of his mouth.

"You were still a teenager when you died, idiot," Sasuke replied affectionately, though he snuck a glare at the pink-haired mistress of his ...what? Kakashi was the closest thing he had to a father now, or a brother or an uncle or any family at all - she was beginning to feel like some kind of strange step-mother.

"When who died?" blinked Sakura, the worry on her features doubling now.

"We have a guest, dear," explained Kakashi calmly. He gestured with a nudge of his head to the area of the room where Naruto was sitting. "You can't see him and no, he isn't alive."

"I would have been twenty-one this year if I hadn't died!" cried the fox. "And don't call me an idiot. Stupid."

"We aren't children, you..." Sasuke cut off another insult and sighed a little. "We would have been the same age, then."

"There's a ghost in the room?" came the tremor of a voice. Sakura had paled considerably and was glancing at the light from the open panels as though she didn't believe it was really daytime. Sunlight was supposed to keep ghosts away, wasn't it?

"Somewhat of a ghost, but..." Sasuke blinked as a tanned hand covered his mouth.

"Don't tell her I'm here," pleaded Naruto. "I can't..."

"He's harmless," Kakashi finished for him. "He's just visiting."

An empty rice bowl rolled across the floor and landed at Sakura's folded knees in front of her breakfast tray. Her eyes widened. "...And he's eating my rice," noted Sasuke, going back to his fish.

"Oh," Sakura nodded, her brain seeming to be at war with her instincts. She was trying to logic herself into believing everything was okay. An uncomfortable moment of silence passed between the three living members of the room. Naruto eyed Sasuke's pickled plums. "It's not Lee, anyway. It's my mother. She's the one who keeps punching him every time he suggests it."

The three men nearly choked on their food.

"I need to know how to stop this," Sasuke began quietly, his teeth gritted against the pain as Sakura cleaned his back and reapplied salves. Breakfast had finished some time ago and he'd received yet another hakama, this one on loan until he gathered up enough money to pay for one of his own. At present it was peeled down, the sleeves hanging off of his hips as the cloth pooled about his waist.

"Stop what?" Kakashi replied innocently, though it was obvious he knew what Sasuke was talking about.

The dark-haired youth's hands clenched into fists. Naruto was inspecting the wounds, his head only centimetres from his former crush. "You know what I mean. Why else would this...ghost be here with me?"

"You can't stop it," came the simple reply. "There isn't a way to stop the sacrifice."

"Why would you want to stop it?" Sakura gasped, her fingers slipping in her surprise. Sasuke growled at her and she backed away slightly.

"Why wouldn't I want to save someone's life? How can you kill your own people?" he

hissed, a groan issuing due to the pain in his muscles. Whatever had attacked him - whatever they really were - had gotten him worse than he was willing to acknowledge.

"We don't kill them," she whispered solemnly as she returned to work. Kakashi watched the exchange from the corner of one eye, the rest of his body language focused on the scrolls he'd returned to reading. "We give them to the fox god - our fox god - and O-Inari-sama...Well, it's been this way for four hundred years."

"Have you fools ever thought of _not_ giving human sacrifices? This village is insane!" The comment earned him a glare from Naruto, a reaction that was still difficult for Sasuke to accept given what had become of him.

"Yes," Sakura returned, a little of her own fire revealed in her tone of voice. "We have tried on two different occasions, both of which resulted in the deaths of over twenty villagers each time due to everything from plague to mysterious animal attacks. We decided as a people not to risk that anymore."

"You're wrong." It was quiet and it was angry.

"If we're so wrong, you don't need to be here! Why the hell did you come to this village anyway, stranger? To look down on us for things that can't be helped? Be on your way if you're going to disrespect us all so thoroughly!"

It was Sasuke's turn to be shocked into silence then. He looked into the burning gaze of green that eminated from the young girl's eyes, finding nothing he wanted to say in return. He told himself she wasn't worth his time, but Naruto - Naruto was.

"Stop acting like you can say whatever you want just because you're handsome," Sakura mumbled as she finally broke his stare and looked away. Kakashi stuffed his face further into the study of his scrolls to cover up his laughter and Sasuke looked at her as though she'd suddenly told them she was a tanuki (which wasn't an impossiblity given the circumstances, he supposed).

Wordlessly, the samurai offered her a bow and thanked his whatever-Kakashi-was-to-him before taking his leave. He didn't apologize - but neither had he thrown a vase through one of the paper doors as he might have liked to and thus considered it a cordial-enough departure. A fluffy blond head followed him out the door, tanned feet skipping along to keep up.

The next order of business was right in the center of town. Steel blue cloth was yanked back over his shoulders just in time to enter Akimichi's restaurant, though it fell loose and exposed his chest. The 'stranger' settled himself on a stool, ordered a cup of sake and raised an eyebrow when he noticed that the spot usually occupied by Shikamaru was empty.

Though he didn't speak his thoughts aloud, Chouji soon informed him that the one person he'd thought might have some sort of idea of what to do was out working in the fields as he was actually meant to - for once. He accepted tea rather than sake given the time of day and relished the near-burning of his fingers on the clay cup, his head resting on his free hand. Though Naruto remained by his side today, he could not find sanctuary in the love that emanated from the spirit; it soothed his soul but with every lengthening shadow on the floor of the shop, Sasuke could feel his options running out. When he'd made his promise to Inuzuka and his bride earlier that morning he'd meant it, had known with the sort of haughty confidence he'd always had that he would indeed save them but...

He'd thought it would be different. The certainty that there was some secret answer hiding away in the back of an ancient text or a magic weapon to solve it all was dwindling it away, slipping through his eager fingers. No words from the villagers, no whispers in the corners, no flashes of brilliance came to him though there was no reason to believe he should be so lucky. By his side Naruto watched the goings-on of his old home in amusement, smirking at a bit of drama here or a rumour there. All the while he seemed relaxed, trusting completely in Sasuke's ability to handle the situation. It was with practiced restraint that he managed not to smash the counter in front of him; he refrained from dashing his tea, cup and all, against the wall and hollering out his frustration though it crawled through every inch of his system - the desire crawled and searched out every inch of him like a poison and Sasuke knew that at the very least he would never escape the recklessness that resided within his overly stiff exterior.

A few coins clinked down on the bar and wondering eyes followed Sasuke's retreating back as he exited, his fingers once again on the hilt of his katana, thumbing the well-used scabbard out of comfort and familiarity.

Shikamaru was leaning on a hoe, apparently taking a rest though his face and hands were covered with sweat and grime. Cicadas' cries rippled through the woods around the edges of the fields and long grasses swayed in the wind around the edges, pale gold from their constant exposure to the sun. "I wish you'd say you were here to help," the field worker muttered. "Sunset can't ever come quickly enough. Want a tomato?"

Sasuke kicked a pebble out of the tilled dirt and kept his eyes to the ground, feeling it unneccessary to point out that today was in fact the sunset of someone's life as well. He really could not follow the logic of Konoha, that some people merely had to die for the sake of the greater good. He supposed the day he understood that would be the day he accepted the necessity of his own parents' demise. "I want to know how to stop it," he said finally.

"I know that. I know that you've been hanging around the shrine almost non-stop since you've been here, too. You've gotten mixed up with those foxes." Shikamaru yawned a little, reached down to yank out a weed and stretched, cracking several joints in his back. "But the thing you have to remember about foxes is that they aren't human, not like you and I. They're tricksters and they'll mix you up in their world. They'll make you fall in love to the point where you can't ever recover." A shrewd, black, almond-shaped eye scrutinized Sasuke closely. Shikamaru's eyes were wider than his own, he noticed. "Haven't you hear the old stories of fox brides and fox husbands? You don't want to be getting in over your head."

Sasuke's heart thudded heavily in his chest at that, but he managed a reply: "But in Konoha's case they aren't lovers, they're killers - aren't they? Or so you all say."

"Are you suggesting they aren't?"

"I'm suggesting I don't believe they are."

"Hmm." The other man leaned down onto his hoe again, wiping his loose sleeve across his brow to remove some of the sweat that had formed there. "That's an interesting theory. Have you got any proof?"

Sasuke was forced to shake his head at this, and then:

"So you've gotten rid of whatever you were holding yesterday morning."

Naruto, who'd been standing nearby staring at a pair of blue butterflies chasing one another into the light, gaped at his old friend. "He's brilliant, Sasuke, he always has been. You can't put anything past him!"

"Naruto," Sasuke began, clearing his throat. "Naruto asked me to fix this and I want to - I want to fix this for him."

Shikamaru's eyes widened softly but he remained silent as he took in this information. There was a touch of sadness in his pensive gaze, but in the end he shook his head. "If you're meant to fix this, then it's up to you. Somehow you already have the tools. B-but...if Naruto believes that you can then you'd better believe you can." His gaze then extended across the fields, as though he were trying to see something that weren't there anymore. "Tell him, where ever he is...ah, no. Nevermind. He knows."

Naruto smiled as though a series of cracks were splitting across the surface of his heart then and nodded. "I know, my friend."

"Why'd you tell him you bastard?" the fox railed at him later, clearly back to his normal energetic self. They were plodding through those pale grasses now, ready to sink into them under the midday sun. Though time was running out, Sasuke had finally come to the conclusion that he would simply have to go down swinging - or something. He wasn't one to back down from a fight, not when he had such a history of bloodshed for less black-and-white causes already. The heat was high that day, beating down on everything in its path. A good day to die? he wondered. Perhaps he was meant to live through this, though. Maybe that's what Naruto believed; what he was meant to believe.

"Whatever this is... this is the end of something, Naruto. I was looking for an end when I came here, any kind of end..." But you know that, he thought. Something was about to break, to give, to change - the end of an era was in sight for him and for the villagers. He could feel it in his bones and in the fresh ache of the slices along his back. He'd injured these creatures once, he could do this.

"You know what would have made this much nicer?" asked Naruto, pulling at handfuls of grass and blowing them into the gentle summer breeze. Sasuke regarded him curiously. "If you'd been able to ask your Dad about this. Or your Mum. Or your brother. Or even my Dad or my Mum. That would have been nice."

A tightness came to Sasuke's pale lips then, but he said nothing. After a moment or so he even nodded, reluctant as he was to agree. A notion occurred to him then, that he'd loved his family even as he had existed among them as a boy who had meant to be a man from the very beginning. Someone who hadn't been meant to show emotion or to express love, though now the idea that he might say he'd loved them was not from stoicism so much as from survival instinct. There was no telling what might be unleashed if he were to admit such truths to himself.

Instead he kissed Naruto fully on the mouth, heaving sighs of need and desperation as he clutched his lover's pure white cloth between his dirty fingers; as he inhaled he took in his sweet one's scent, earthy and clean and warm. He drank in the affection that poured forth from Naruto's kisses, sank into the embrace which enveloped him and gave him that sensation of escape that he'd craved all day. He kissed him the way a parched man seeks water from a cold, untainted stream and took in every sensation that he dared without exploding. He stroked that hair, the colour of a yellow shell, sought refuge in a bell flower-blue gaze and kissed the rough fingers that even now were browned from a life in the sun that they two were under then, too.

And when he was done - when he'd had his fill - he walked calmly to the center of the village with Naruto by his side. There was something infinitely peaceful and satisfying about the way their arms brushed one another from time to time.

An argument had broken out in the center of the village and nearly every resident of the area had come out to watch. They'd formed a huge ring around the instigators, an audience of scandalized on-lookers as angry voices arose among the din. Even Kakashi was there, watching with Sakura by his side, though it was impossible to see the center of the ring from where they stood. Sasuke gave them a brief nod before pushing through, certain of who it might be.

Sure enough, there stood Kiba, this time actually attempting to battle the younger Hyuuga male, Neji. They were grappling like idiots, albeit feisty ones; Sasuke noted that neither of them had drawn weapons at all - it was very reminiscent of stags butting their antlers against one another. Most of the cries that arose from the crowd were fearful and dismayed, pleading with both of the young men to stop the futility. Indeed, there could be no real end to the fight; even if Kiba managed to beat Neji within an inch of his life or vice versa, Hinata was still tied by her own red thread of fate. Finally Shino and Lee burst through the throng of people together and jumped upon the grappling figures of their friends, dragging them apart. Sasuke chose this moment to enter the ring as well.

"Uchiha!" cried the heir of the Inuzuka clan. Neji glared, his blood still heated from the adrenaline of battle and currently trickling from his split lip a bit. "Finally, we've been waiting for you for - well, for too long." He looked sheepish for a moment, scratching at one of the red triangles that adorned his cheeks before yelling at the top of his (formidable) lungs. "Everyone! Master Uchiha has promised us a solution as I told you! We are saved!"

A silence fell over the crowd. Sasuke glanced around at each and every face, noting the expressions of everything from hope to shock to anger. How dare he give them something to believe in? The level of anticipation swelled; a collective breath held as they awaited this grand solution he had apparently promised them all. And the truth was...there was no easy, tangible answer to give them. Was there?

Well?

Naruto's curious eyes had been watching him all along, his own figure exempt from their scrutinizing eyes and quick judgment. Those trusting, honest blue eyes of his widened and he gasped softly, his voice faltering in dismay as he gleaned thoughts from that well-guarded mind. "Sasuke, no..."

"I will take Hinata's place," voiced the samurai in a tone as even and sharp as tempered steel. "I offer myself as a sacrifice to the great god O-Inari-sama."


End file.
